How Liverpool cured their set-piece sickness – and why it matters

For months, dead-ball situations felt like a slow poison for Liverpool. Corners and long throws that should have been routine were ending in gasps of anxiety inside Anfield, and Arne Slot’s post-match press conferences invariably circled back to the same topic: set-piece balance. On 30 December, with the club having conceded 13 and scored only eight across 27 fixtures, set-piece coach Aaron Briggs departed. Analyst Lewis Mahoney, recruited from Southampton the previous summer, stepped to the fore. The results since have bordered on alchemy.

A snapshot of the turnaround: in 13 subsequent matches Liverpool have scored nine times from set plays and conceded just twice, swinging their overall balance from minus-five to plus-seven. The watershed moment arrived deep into stoppage time at the Stadium of Light. Joe Gomez, who had spent much of the evening launching long throw-ins into Sunderland’s penalty area, instead went short to Dominik Szoboszlai. The Hungarian worked space for a clipped cross, Virgil van Dijk’s header was parried, and Alexis Mac Allister forced home a winner that, under Opta’s definition, counts as a set-piece goal because the phase began with a throw-in.

Slot has argued that fortune has merely regressed to the mean. Before the coaching reshuffle, Premier League opponents had converted 12 goals from an expected goals total of 6.1. Since then, the xG against from set pieces has been 2.7, with only two goals conceded. “We hardly gave away a chance,” Slot said, “but every ball went in.”

The structural tweaks have been subtle. Liverpool still station Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Hugo Ekitike and Ryan Gravenberch around the six-yard box at corners; Szoboszlai has merely shifted from a blocking role to a zonal one. Personnel assignments now flex according to the opposition: Cody Gakpo alternates between marking duties near the front post and back post, while Mohamed Salah, Szoboszlai and Gakpo have become the primary corner takers. A notable strategic change is the preference for inswinging deliveries aimed at the central six-yard zone, rising from 27 per cent to 65 per cent on left-sided corners and from 20 per cent to 53 per cent on right-sided ones.

The dividends are visible. Three of Liverpool’s last six league goals from dead balls have arrived via corners, including Van Dijk’s decisive header against Sunderland, which took a final touch off Nordi Mukiele. Free-kicks have also flourished: Szoboszlai’s piledriver versus Manchester City, the under-the-wall strike versus Marseille, and rehearsed lay-offs finished by Salah against Bournemouth and Qarabag.

Defensively, the improvement is starker. Eight of the 13 goals conceded before Briggs’s exit originated from corners; none have since. Liverpool continue to clear the first contact, but second-phase vigilance has sharpened. Even long throws, once a persistent irritant, are being neutralised by Van Dijk’s willingness to attack the initial ball.

With Champions League qualification on a knife-edge, Liverpool’s set-piece renaissance could yet define their season. The sickness has not merely been cured; it has become a source of strength.