{"id":460449,"date":"2025-09-29T12:55:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/460449\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T12:55:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:55:15","slug":"liverpool-handing-arsenal-advantage-with-set-piece-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/460449\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool handing Arsenal advantage with set-piece struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: IMAGO | Anfield Index<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is unfair to pose questions over Liverpool\u2019s set-piece prowess just six Premier League games into the tenure of a new team tasked with improving them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But then the spotlight was always going to be thrown onto that aspect of the Reds\u2019 game after it proved key to them coming out on the wrong side of a small shift in the title race over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Although few could argue with the deserved nature of the goals, the fact is that Arne Slot\u2019s side lost to Crystal Palace as the result of two set-piece strikes, with one coming from a corner and the other a throw-in.<\/p>\n

Then, just over 24 hours later, their rivals Arsenal turned a potential defeat at Newcastle into a 2-1 win courtesy of two goals from corners (albeit having conceded one themselves).<\/p>\n

The result was a three-point swing that leaves the Gunners just two behind Slot\u2019s leaders at the summit.<\/p>\n

And watching Mikel Arteta\u2019s men, it was hard not to wonder how useful it might be for Liverpool to be able to nick such cheap goals on a regular basis, particularly in tight games.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Thus far this season, the Reds\u2019 only set-piece strike in the Premier League is Dominik Szoboszlai\u2019s stunner against Arsenal, which is not exactly the sort of repeatable routine you aim for.<\/p>\n

They have also conceded four from set-pieces, leaving West Ham (seven) as the only top-flight side with a worse record at this point.<\/p>\n

Slot regularly discusses the need for \u201cset-piece balance\u201d (scoring as many as you concede) and his team are falling well short of that expectation currently.<\/p>\n

Arsenal, meanwhile, are now up to a league-leading seven goals for, with just two conceded at the other end.<\/p>\n

Of course, this also throws up questions around sustainability given they have scored 12 times in total, with a penalty and a seriously questionable four open-play goals completing their tally.<\/p>\n

But if Liverpool were even half as effective as their rivals in scoring from set-pieces, then their superiority in open play would likely mean there wouldn\u2019t be much of a title race again this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: IMAGO | Anfield Index Perhaps it is unfair to pose questions over Liverpool\u2019s set-piece prowess just six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-460449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115287695521294169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}