Liverpool enjoyed plenty of set-piece success at the San Siro but they should be aiming to score more goals using the tactic
After Ibrahima Konate headed Liverpool level at the San Siro on Tuesday night, Darwin Nunez and Andy Robertson could hardly contain their delight. The duo had been warming up on the sidelines as Trent Alexander-Arnold prepared to whip an enticing delivery into the penalty area and, when Konate rose to divert the ball past AC Milan’s Mike Maignan, they celebrated wildly on the touchline.
The goal will surely have garnered a happier reception, though, in the Liverpool dugout, with Arne Slot’s backroom staff having successfully identified and exploited one of the Italian side’s major deficiencies. That sense of accomplishment will have only intensified when, just 20 minutes later, Virgil van Dijk powered home from a Kostas Tsimikas corner to put the visitors in front.
Excluding penalties, it was the first time Liverpool had scored from two set pieces in the same game since a 3-1 win over Burnley in early February. “We were disappointed about getting eight corner kicks and not scoring against Nottingham Forest (last Saturday), but we were very close,” Slot said after the match.
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“We felt with all the work we put in on set pieces, that at some moment we should get the reward. It was two very good set pieces and two very good headers that got us two goals. It was important because I think we were very comfortable on the ball, pressed really well, but in the end, you need goals as well.
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“We hit the crossbar a few times from open play, so we needed set pieces and it was good to see that we scored them for all the work my assistants and the players put in.”
One of those ‘assistants’, in particular, has been credited with Liverpool’s set-piece success at the San Siro. Aaron Briggs, who joined the club as first team individual development coach in July has been charged with conjuring up the Reds’ set-piece innovations while the club’s search for a long-term replacement continues.
Liverpool began advertising for a first-team set-piece coach in May, even posting the vacancy on social networking site LinkedIn. According to that post, the ideal candidate would be able to deliver “thorough analysis, meticulous planning, and the ability to expertly coach both offensive and defensive set-piece strategies”.
Though the position remains unfilled, Briggs – a UEFA Pro Licence holder – is doing a fantastic job at filling the void. With extensive experience of both coaching and analysis, he spent nine years at Manchester City, progressing to become their Senior First Team Performance Analyst before spells at AS Monaco and VfL Wolfsburg.
He will no doubt have been delighted to see both of Liverpool’s centre-backs get on the scoresheet in Milan. Going forward, though, set-pieces should be more regularly deployed as an avenue to goals for the Reds.
Before Tuesday’s trip to the San Siro, Liverpool had won 28 corners in just four games but had failed to take advantage of any of them. And the Reds only have to look at rivals Arsenal to see the potential potency of set- pieces, with the Gunners having topped the Premier League’s set-piece table last term with 20 goals.
Liverpool, by contrast, ranked joint-fourth in that particular table, with 14 set-piece goals scored across the campaign. It was a respectable tally but one which still leaves plenty of room for improvement.
Arsenal are similarly dominant when it comes to individual set-piece success, with their first-choice centre-back partnership of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães having contributed 12 league goals between them since the start of the 2022/23 season.
Liverpool’s current centre-back pairing of Van Dijk and Konate, however, have generated just five league goals in the same timeframe – all of them coming from the Dutchman. With the margins so tight at the elite level, contributing a few more set piece goals can be the difference between battling for top four or challenging for the title.
That Arsenal were only able to pick up the three points in last weekend’s North London derby thanks to a Gabriel header is proof enough of that. And Arteta has long been an advocate for the importance of making the most of set-plays, poaching specialist Nicolas Jover from Manchester City in 2021.
“I gave my advice to go and recruit Nico,” Arteta told TNT Sports earlier this year. “I met him, we started to discuss how we could apply set pieces to the open play, which is also connected, they’re not two separate things, it’s all connected in the game, and how we could maximize that.
“I knew Nico from before, and I asked him to come and join our project, he did, and he’s having a really strong impact on the team.”
Liverpool will hope they are able to land a similarly impactful candidate at Anfield in the not too distant future, although it would take someone particularly impressive to dislodge Briggs from his interim role. For now, though, the Reds will hope to build on the set-piece momentum generated at the San Siro. Doing so could make all the difference come the end of the campaign.
