Late to set-piece party, Liverpool are making up for lost time

If you cannot beat them, be part of them. Liverpool have been gradual to get on board with the Premier League‘s set-piece revolution, however their willingness to embrace the sport’s more and more agricultural method has been instrumental of their current revival, together with in Saturday’s 5-2 victory over West Ham United at Anfield.

When Alexis Mac Allister drilled house the hosts’ third purpose of the afternoon in entrance of the Kop, he ensured Liverpool turned simply the second group in Premier League historical past to attain three objectives from corners within the first half of a match, after Manchester United towards Leicester Metropolis in September 2016. It’s the sort of statistic that will have appeared preposterous within the early months of the marketing campaign, when the Reds’ lack of proficiency at each scoring and defending set items negatively impacted their fortunes on an virtually weekly foundation.

Liverpool’s woes in that division have been so pronounced that the membership opted to part company with set-piece coach Aaron Briggs in December — though supervisor Arne Slot publicly defended his former colleague when grilled on the matter final week.

“It could be very unfair to Aaron, who was solely partly accountable for that, as a result of ultimately I am accountable for every part,” Slot stated. “Ultimately it is all the time my accountability. However we have been, in that time frame, so, so, so unfortunate.”

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On the proof of Saturday’s first-half exhibiting, that luck has now began to alter. Having been perennial gradual starters within the prime flight this season, Liverpool raced into an early lead when Ryan Gravenberch recycled possession from a nook and picked out Hugo Ekitike, who completed well previous Mads Hermansen on the close to put up.

It was Ekitike’s eleventh league purpose of the season and his sixteenth in all competitions, making the France worldwide the primary Liverpool participant to achieve 20 purpose contributions this time period, with 4 assists additionally to his identify. West Ham, who had misplaced simply one in all their earlier six league video games forward of this weekend’s journey to Merseyside, rallied nicely after the early setback however discovered themselves on the tip of but extra set-piece distress when Virgil van Dijk rose highest to nod Dominik Szoboszlai‘s in-swinging nook into the again if the web.

Liverpool employed the identical path to purpose once more on the stroke of halftime, with Ekitike serving to Szoboszlai’s good supply into the trail of Mac Allister, who completed with aplomb to double his Premier League purpose tally for the season.

His strike was Liverpool’s seventh consecutive league purpose from a non-penalty set piece — the longest run by any facet within the competitors’s historical past. Whereas Slot was proper to say that his group’s drastic uptick in set-piece type shouldn’t be pinned on one particular person, the distinction in Liverpool’s numbers is stark.

Throughout their first 20 Premier League matches this season, Liverpool scored simply three objectives from set items — the fewest of any group within the division. Their efficacy from corners on Saturday, nonetheless, means they’ve scored 9 set-piece objectives of their previous eight league video games: greater than any of their opponents.

“That is very pleasing as a result of that’s the reason we’ve got gained,” Slot stated in his postmatch information convention. “In my view, we’ve got performed higher when we’ve got misplaced and conceded from set items. However, as I’ve all the time stated, issues went again to regular.

“We created various probabilities from set items within the first half of the season and virtually each set piece we conceded went in, and at this time you possibly can see precisely the other occurring. Their first huge probability was a set piece that will have gone in, within the first six or seven months, I am 100% certain. However then it would not and we begin scoring from set items, issues begin wanting significantly better and brighter. That is actually pleasing for us, for the group and for the followers as nicely.”

In a season that has been characterised by late drama, Liverpool deviated from the norm by scoring three objectives within the first half of a league recreation for the primary time for the reason that day they clinched the title towards Tottenham Hotspur final April. Nonetheless, the Reds’ unwelcome behavior of creating life troublesome from themselves as soon as once more reared its head within the second half, with Tomás Soucek diverting El Hadji Malick Diouf‘s drilled cross previous Alisson Becker simply 4 minutes after the restart.

With nothing to lose, West Ham continued to pose loads of issues for his or her hosts earlier than Cody Gakpo‘s deflected effort helped to calm some nerves round Anfield. It was solely the Netherlands worldwide’s second purpose within the league since his strike within the reverse fixture on the London Stadium in late November, and his impassioned celebration recommended it was a welcome reduction to seek out himself again on the scoresheet.

A late header from Valentín Castellanos and a good later own-goal from Axel Disasi solely heightened the erratic nature of Liverpool’s second-half show, and Slot will know extra management and composure is required from his group if they’re to complete the season in a stronger trend than they began it.

However, Liverpool have now gained seven of their previous 9 video games in all competitions and are as much as fifth within the Premier League, simply three factors behind third-placed Aston Villa. They irrefutably stay an imperfect facet, and even in securing their joint-biggest top-flight win of the season, they confirmed there may be nonetheless loads of scope for enchancment.

However having been late to the set-piece get together, Liverpool now look decided to make up for misplaced time. It would simply be the key weapon they should make this marketing campaign a profitable one.