“Our set-up is a little different, but the biggest reason is that things are back to normal,” Arne Slott justified after the weekend’s win against West Ham. Liverpool scored three goals from corner kick situations in the first half of their 5-2 win.
In fact, seven of Liverpool’s last nine Premier League goals have come from set-pieces, with five of those coming from corners. The rise addresses a severe imbalance from the first half of the season, when Liverpool briefly held the worst set-piece record in Europe’s top five leagues.
Slott may not like it and, as he claimed on Monday, it may hurt his “football heart”, but accepting the new reality of the Premier League is really the only logical and sustainable play here. If you can’t beat them, join them.
Virgil van Dijk scores from a corner kick to secure victory against West Ham
So how did Liverpool go from being the worst team in the league to one of the best in just a few weeks? Acceptance is often the first step to recovery.
Set-piece supremacy was not originally part of Slott’s strategy, but he gradually came to terms with it, and along with coaching assistants Schipke Hulshoff and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, he took on the responsibility himself. Set-piece analyst Lewis Mahoney has also been given a big voice, but there are no plans to bring in a new set-piece specialist.
Perhaps, but perhaps not coincidentally, this new dead-ball efficiency came about after the departure of set-piece coach Aaron Briggs at the end of December, who preferred to take collective responsibility for commanding set-pieces. Under Slott’s guidance, as with most other teams in the league, inswing corners became commonplace.
It is clear that most teams are now targeting the six-yard box in order to cause maximum disruption through air strikes. Arsenal are masters of this. Liverpool are latecomers, but this is generally the trend across the league.
Offensive teams are averaging 3.25 players in the six-yard box, up from 2.51 last season. Last season was the first time this metric exceeded two. As a result, defensive teams now have to place 7.33 players in the six-yard area, up from 6.67 in the previous period.
In particular, the goalkeeper’s space is restricted, reducing the possibility of first contact.
Of directly crossed corners, 81% are now inswingers, up from 71% last season, when they hovered around 59%. For Liverpool in particular, the inswinger has been invaluable to players such as Virgil van Dijk, Hugo Ekitike and Alexis Mac Allister, who are mopping up in the second phase.
The Reds’ last three league games have all been won by corner goals. There were 28 corners in that entire run, and 70% of them landed directly in the middle of the six-yard box, the sweet spot. Comparing the positions of both corners before Slot took ownership shows a staggering drop of just 19 percent in the number of deliveries landing in the same zone perfect for scoring goals.
The three corner goals he scored against West Ham helped in no small part to an opponent whose defense was particularly shaky, but it was telling that all three of his crosses went inside. This strategy has a high success rate both directly, as evidenced by Van Dijk’s header, and indirectly, as evidenced by Ekitike’s opening goal.
Matheus Fernandes even told Sky Sports at Anfield Full Time that the team had been working all week on a plan to stop Van Dijk, who is currently the second-highest scoring central defender in Premier League history behind John Terry. I failed quite spectacularly.
West Ham’s failure to prevent Liverpool’s corner kick leaves Nuno Espirito Santo confused
For the third goal, Mac Allister scored from Mohamed Salah’s pass and the Hammers conceded three offenses of contact with the ball without intervention, but this time the ball dropped a little shorter for Van Dijk to flick it against the front post. Perhaps this whole phase says more about West Ham than it does about Liverpool, but the point remains.
This improvement has been trending upward over recent weeks.
Simple movements are also effective. Ekitike’s 6-foot-3 frame and positional intelligence were key and were utilized in different ways for each of his goals over the weekend. He found space in the box to score the first, acted as a prop to draw defenders in for the second, and darted out at the back post to assist the third.
When Ekitike’s most reliable supply line, Florian Wirths, is unable to supply passes from open play, as in this case he is disabled or absent entirely, it is vital that Liverpool’s only eligible striker can become a set-piece threat. This becomes even more important when you consider that Slot’s side have taken the fourth-most corner kicks in the division (163), just seven fewer than Arsenal (170).
The Gunners may still be the gold standard in terms of set-piece conversions, but as the Dutchman has admitted on numerous occasions, and as illustrated above, Liverpool have never shied away from creating set-pieces.
Now, thanks to some subtle adjustments to their zone play and delivery, they are finally getting that chance.
