Germany U21s consider four potential set-piece takers ahead of coming Euros | OneFootball

As Antonio di Salvo’s Germany U21 squad prepares for the start of their European Championship campaign in just 11 days time, selecting a primary set piece taker for the team remains a big challenge. Germany U21 assistant coach Ovid Hajou spoke on the matter with Kicker. Hajou has three Bundesliga professionals and one Premier League star to choose from.

Hajou is known as something of a set-piece specialist, having worked in this regard under head coaches Torsten Lieberknecht at Darmstadt and Mark Walpurgis at Dynamo Dresden. Hajou joined the U21 team in October 2024 as a replacement for the departed Daniel Niedzkowski, who left to join Fabian Hürzeler’s coaching team at Brighton & Hove Albion.

Interestingly enough, Hajou’s first candidate is a Brighton player. Former Mainz man Brajan Gruda – after enjoying a successful March international break with the U21s – was mentioned by Hajou specifically. Hajou praised the 20-year-old’s “powerful foot”. Other nominees Hajou is considering include Bayern Munich talent Paul Wanner and ever-enthusiastic Mainz attacker Paul Nebel.

The recent set-piece work of Nathaniel Brown for Eintracht Frankfurt gives Hajou a fourth option. Hajou noted that Brown has “been hitting some spectacular balls for his club [off dead ball situations].”. Hajou did take care to note that the goal would be to whittle down this field of four to two primary takers before the start of the tournament on June 12th.

“We’ll decide that in advance,” Hajou noted in the Kicker interview. “Two players will ultimately coordinate on the pitch. No one else will join in or we’ll end up playing rock, paper, scissors. That’s not an option.

“All will become clear in time,” Hajou also noted in the piece. “There’s no hocus-pocus involved. I’m not some sort of super guru. Set-pieces are very important. At the end of the day, my ideas don’t matter. The lads have to believe in it and implement it.”

GGFN |  Peter Weis