Arne Slot, Liverpool and the age of the Premier League set piece

Arne Slot has said a failure to capitalise on set-piece opportunities is making life difficult for his side after opposing teams changed the way they play against Liverpool in the aftermath of Jürgen Klopp’s departure.

Liverpool’s only set-piece goal in the Premier League this season came in late August, when Dominik Szoboszlai converted a late free-kick at Anfield to seal victory over Arsenal.

A relative lack of threat from dead-ball situations was identified by Slot as a key area for improvement even during last season’s march to the title, with the Dutchman remarking in an interview that “a team like us that has so many set pieces has to score more”. 

Slot believes the problem has been thrown into sharper relief by the fact that rival defences have started to sit deeper against Liverpool, making it harder to score from open play in the post-Klopp era.

Liverpool’s growing vulnerability to set-pieces

The club advertised unsuccessfully for a set-piece coach over the summer, with the need for specialist support in that area evident in Liverpool’s growing vulnerability from dead-ball situations.

Last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Selhurst Park, where Crystal Palace scored from a corner and a throw-in, was a case in point. The defeat took Liverpool’s tally of set-piece goals conceded this term to four; only West Ham and Leeds have a worse record. Slot’s side conceded just 10 goals from non-penalty set pieces last season.

“The second half of last season had a lot of similarities with the start of this season, with one exception: the second part of last season we scored a lot of set-piece goals, which led to wins, and this season we have conceded four,” said Slot, whose side were defeated at Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

‘Everybody thought,”Let’s play a different way against Liverpool”‘

“We’ve been very close to scoring set-pieces this season already. [Ibrahima Konaté] had a big chance against Galatasaray and a big chance against Palace. I’m very happy about the amount of chances we generate from set-pieces, but we haven’t scored yet.

“Is that luck, bad luck? At this moment of time I would say we are a bit unlucky. If this just keeps on going throughout the whole season, it might have to do with other things as well. 

“But what I’m trying to say is that open goals [in the] second part of last season and first part of last season is the main difference. I don’t think we do things different; I do see teams doing a lot of things different to us. 

“Jürgen gave me a lot of gifts, but one of the gifts he also gave me was ending up first [in 2020] and [third] the year before [Slot arrived], and him being so well known that a new manager came in and everybody thought, ‘Let’s start to play a different way against Liverpool.’ 

“Teams played in a completely different way [in the] first part of the season against us than they did when we were top of the league after the first part of the season, and when we were top of the Champions League after the first part of the season. I can see this now going into this part of this season, and we have to find answers to that. 

Arne Slot: ‘Many teams unlock low blocks with set pieces and this season we haven’t’

“Last season, one of the answers was a set piece. Many teams unlock low blocks with set pieces and this season we haven’t done that yet.”

The departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold, one of Europe’s most accomplished set-piece artists, has hardly helped in that regard, but it is a statistic Slot will be eager to alter when his side travel to Chelsea this weekend.

Arne Slot: Liverpool wary of Chelsea’s dead-ball threat

While Liverpool remain two points clear at the top of the table – and have not lost two successive league matches since April 2023 – the Dutchman is acutely aware of the threat Enzo Maresca’s side pose from dead-ball situations.

“I think they have scored more than 50% of their [11] goals from set-pieces,” said Slot. “This is the new reality in the Premier League.”

Liverpool will be without Alisson at Stamford Bridge after the goalkeeper suffered a hamstring injury against Galatasaray. Slot said the 33-year-old would not join up with Brazil over the international break, and could also miss the Manchester United game at Anfield on 19 October. 

Hugo Ekitike, who suffered a late injury scare in Istanbul, has returned to training and will be assessed on Friday morning, as will Italian forward Federico Chiesa.