By Opta Analyst | Created at 2025-04-02 10:31:32 | Updated at 2025-04-03 10:56:55
1 day ago
The lesser-spotted corner delivery from a centre-back was on show as Borussia Dortmund beat Mainz on Sunday. We take a look at Nico Schlotterbeck‘s unusually fruitful day.
A centre-back taking a corner; it’s like seeing a baby driving a car, or a dog manning the till at a supermarket.
Such a player isn’t supposed to be in that role. They’re supposed to be in the box awaiting the delivery, or back on the halfway line to stop a breakaway.
When Borussia Dortmund fans saw Nico Schlotterbeck trotting over to take a corner in their Bundesliga game against Mainz on Sunday, they would have been forgiven for thinking April Fool’s Day had come early.
However, those thoughts will have been cast aside quickly as they saw the baby perfectly parallel park and the dog successfully process a big shop for an elderly couple with vouchers.
Schlotterbeck may be a centre-back, but he is very much trusted in possession. He has attempted at least 348 more passes than any of his teammates this season (2,034) and the third most in the whole of the Bundesliga, with an impressive success rate of 89.6%.
The 25-year-old seemed a little more eager than usual in the 3-1 victory against in-form Mainz. Schlotterbeck had not attempted more than two shots in any Bundesliga game this season but attempted a game-high four shots on Sunday. Something more notable was to come, though.
In his previous 148 Bundesliga games across spells at Freiburg, Union Berlin (loan) and Dortmund, Schlotterbeck had not taken a single corner. However, with Daniel Svensson unavailable, Niko Kovac turned to Schlotterbeck as a left-footed option to take inswinging corners from the right.
Dortmund had largely taken outswingers from the right this season, but in recent games it has been Svensson taking inswingers. Kovac wanted to keep doing so, leading to Schlotterbeck being asked to do the honours.
“We needed a left-footed player to put in those inswinging crosses, and Schlotti was pretty much the only one,” Maximilian Beier, the grateful recipient of one of Schlotterbeck’s corners, said after the game.
In total, the Germany international took five corners. The first in the 37th minute found Waldemer Anton at the far post, but his header down was cleared. It was merely a sighter for Schlotterbeck, though, whose second effort five minutes later to the back post found Emre Can, who headed Dortmund into a 2-0 lead.
His third corner in the 57th minute reached Salih Özcan, whose header was deflected behind, and his fourth to the near post from the resulting corner was headed away.
Schlotterbeck wasn’t finished there, though. His fifth and final corner of the afternoon was headed in at the near post by Beier to give the hosts a three-goal advantage.
Two assists from five corners might not seem all that impressive, but bear in mind it makes Schlotterbeck Dortmund’s most productive corner taker in the Bundesliga this season. Main taker Pascal Groß has just one assist from his 88 corners in the league in 2024-25.
Schlotterbeck explained: “The head coach said that Holger Badstuber once took corners for Bayern Munich despite being a central defender. The corners I took in training worked well, so I just tried to do the same thing.”
In the last minute of stoppage time, he attempted his first direct free-kick in a Bundesliga game… Though it might be his last as it went several metres over the bar.
So, how odd is it to see a centre-back taking corners, let alone producing assists from them? With detailed Opta data on corners going back to the 2015-16 season, we decided to try and find out.
Staying in Germany, the Bundesliga has seen a few centre-backs trot over to the corner quadrant over the years.
Makoto Hasebe took 18 corners for Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2016-17 season, though without much success, as only two led to attempts at goal.
Hertha Berlin’s Márton Dárdai took 14 corners in 2020-21, but only one was considered successful – corners where the receiver (first contact) is by the attacking team.
In 2021-22, Dárdai – who was played on the left of a back three by manager and father Pál Dárdai – took another seven, and claimed an assist when one of his four corners against Greuther Fürth was headed in by Jurgen Ekkelenkamp.
The following season, Hiroki Ito took 17 corner kicks for Stuttgart, with six successful, but the Japan international is yet to take one for Bayern Munich.
The Premier League has barely seen any examples, with the only centre-back to have taken one this season being Joachim Andersen, but that was taken short in Crystal Palace’s 2-1 defeat at Brentford in August. He was sold to Fulham soon after that, but we assume not just because he took a corner.
The Dane also took one in the 2022-23 season, but was outshone by Manchester City’s John Stones, whose one and only corner taken that season led to a goal in a 3-3 draw at Newcastle United. Granted, he took it short to Bernardo Silva, who laid it back to Kevin De Bruyne to cross for Rodri to set up Erling Haaland, but Stones will presumably claim he was clearly the real hero of the set-piece.
Over in Serie A, Cesare Bovo was the sole representative of centre-back corners while at Torino, taking 13 in the 2015-16 season (five successful) and a further five in 2016-17, one of which led to a goal for Andrea Belotti in a 5-1 win over Bologna. However, on that occasion, Bovo’s corner had been cleared to the edge of the box before Torino worked it back in for their number nine to open the scoring.
A familiar name to Arsenal fans, Jakub Kiwior, took nine in 2022-23 for Spezia, including one that led to a goal as his inswinger in a 2-2 draw with Cremonese produced a goalmouth scramble before Emil Holm scored. However, we’re not going to count that effort as the Poland international played in midfield that game.
Over in La Liga, former Newcastle United centre-back Florian Lejeune took four corners while on loan at Rayo Vallecano from Alavés, though none found a teammate.
David Alaba took three corners as a centre-back in his first two seasons with Real Madrid, before taking 12 more last season, one of which, at Athletic Club on the opening matchday of the season, saw him assist Jude Bellingham’s first ever La Liga goal.
Aside from one-off corners here and there, almost always taken short, that’s it from the last 10 years. If Schlotterbeck continues to be trusted on corners, he could quite comfortably become the standout centre-back for taking them.
It’s not quite former Paraguay goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert bending in direct free-kicks left, right and centre, but seeing a centre-back not only taking corners, but being effective at them is interesting enough at least for us to write an article about.
We’ll have to wait and see if it starts a trend, but perhaps don’t expect to see Dan Burn or James Tarkowski lining one up any time soon, though we’d love to be proven wrong.
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