Arne Slott hailed the efficiency of Liverpool’s set-pieces in their 1-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. “Usually we concede one goal, but tonight we were able to score. That was the difference for us in this game,” he said in a press conference.
Virgil van Dijk’s second-half header from Mohamed Salah’s shot was actually Liverpool’s third goal from a corner in their last four Premier League games. However, their total of four games this season is still the fifth-fewest in the Premier League.
Slott cited the cost of failing to capitalize on set-pieces in close games earlier this season, pointing to draws with other newly promoted teams Leeds and Burnley. So what has changed?
accept inswingers
Their newfound effectiveness is no coincidence.
Use Chrome Browser for a more accessible video player
Watch highlights from Liverpool’s win against Sunderland
Rather, it is the result of a significant change in approach.
Before last month’s loss to Bournemouth, where they scored the first of their last three goals from corners, Liverpool had the lowest success rate from in-swing deliveries in the Premier League at 49.4 per cent, well below the average of around 70 per cent.
In the four games since then, that success rate has increased to 82.5 per cent, with 28 of the 34 corners taken against Bournemouth, Newcastle, Manchester City and Sunderland being inswingers.
Coincidence or not, the change in focus following the departure of set-piece coach Aaron Briggs at the end of December has clearly paid off, with Liverpool now scoring three goals from 34 corners, compared to just one from 117 before this term.
It’s worth noting that even the one goal he scored before the change of focus, against Brighton on December 13, came from an in-swinging shot from Salah by Hugo Ekitike.
Ekitike’s goal, like Van Dijk’s goals against Sunderland and Bournemouth, was scored from inside the six-yard box and highlighted one of the main advantages of the inswing delivery: its trajectory makes it easier to shoot from close range.
It’s not an exact science. Of course, there are other factors to consider as well. But in general, the closer you get to the goal, the more likely you are to score. By using more in-swingers, Liverpool are able to target the six-yard box more often.
Liverpool’s corners are now concentrated in the center of the six-yard box
Comparing the corner positions before and after the game against Bournemouth, we see an increased proportion of deliveries into more dangerous areas, with a clear focus on the center of the six-yard box directly above the goalkeeper.
The popularity and effectiveness of in-swinging corners is evident both up and down the Premier League, with 5 per cent of all in-swing corners resulting in goals this season, compared to just 3.6 per cent of out-swingers.
packing 6 yard boxes
It’s not just the zone where you can be targeted from the corner.
How these zones are occupied is equally important.
It is an increasingly common sight for Premier League teams to deploy a large number of players in the six-yard box from an attacking corner to maximize the chance of gaining first contact at close range, while also making it more difficult for opposing goalkeepers to catch or punch the ball.
This approach, which analyst Michael Keighley dubbed the “wall of flesh”, has worked to good effect at Arsenal and is now being used at Liverpool, with Van Dijk being one of five Liverpool players in a crowded six-yard box to score a header against Sunderland.
Sunderland’s six-yard box was a mass of corpses aimed at Liverpool’s goal.
In a crowded six-yard box, Robian Roofs fails to reach the corner before Van Dijk
The goal of the night came from Liverpool’s 10th corner, but the same approach was evident earlier in the game.
Ten of Liverpool’s 11 total corners were inswingers, the only exception being a short corner taken by Salah in an attempt to speed up the clock in stoppage time.
In the first corner of the night, shown below, Liverpool’s players started their run from outside the six-yard box. But Liverpool changed tack after Salah’s shot was effortlessly headed clear by the invincible Sunderland centre-back Dan Ballard.
Liverpool had no players inside Sunderland’s six-yard box for their first corner of the night.
Since then, Sunderland’s six-yard box now has a minimum of three players in each corner.
The second corner showed a change of approach as Liverpool filled the six-yard box
Liverpool continued to fill the six-yard box with Salah’s corners and Gakpo’s goals.
These shots proved to be much more difficult for Sunderland to defend, with Van Dijk heading Cody Gakpo’s shot over the bar and Ibrahima Konate almost going over the edge of the other Gakpo’s centre, but in the end their approach paid off and resulted in the decisive goal.
The success of this approach, exemplified by Van Dijk’s goal, helps explain why Premier League teams are turning corners into the six-yard box with increasing regularity.
In fact, the number of corners taken into the six-yard box has increased in each of the last five Premier League seasons, reaching a high of 4.72 per game this season as more teams, including Liverpool, look to maximize their chances of success from set-pieces.
For Slott, the result was a victory for the Liverpool side in a match they might have previously drawn, and encouragement that their weakness may now be one of their strengths.
