Liverpool Defending Set Pieces: A Corner To Be Turned

Liverpool dropped two points at Leeds thanks to a goal from a corner, to go with costly set play goals against Crystal Palace, Manchester United, Brentford, Nottingham Forest...

My best pal, a 14-year-old rescue dog called Marley, died on Saturday. You can read about him here. So while every Liverpool related newsletter, podcast, blog and video channel will be unpicking the Mohamed Salah mess this week, I can’t engage with that at all. I would struggle to care less. Instead, here’s something I had already been meaning to write about, which remains hugely pertinent after the draw with Leeds anyway.

Up the Reds. Rest well, Marley.

---

The Premier League of 2025/26 is a battleground of set pieces, with goals from corners, free-kicks and throw-ins shaping results and narratives week after week. But are they actually as prevalent as we think? It depends where you draw the line.

There have been an average of 0.77 set play goals per game in the top flight this season, more than in any of the preceding 16 campaigns for which WhoScored has data. That rate drops to 0.62 if you count from the start of the Arne Slot era. The average in the season before that, 2023/24? 0.62.

Set pieces have become more dominant because total goals have dropped off a touch. Those that come via dead ball situations represent a bigger share of the total than ever before. Liverpool know this better than most.

Since 2009/10, set plays are responsible for 21.8 per cent of Premier League goals. That figure stands at 27.3 this season. For the Reds, 10 of the 24 goals they have conceded in 2025/26 fit this bill, 41.7 per cent of their total. The rate is even higher for Arsenal (44.4), though it’s far less of an issue for a team that has let in fewer goals in any situation than Liverpool have thanks to set pieces alone.

2016/17 was the last time the Reds conceded more in a whole season. They’ve equalled their yearly average from across the last 16 campaigns inside 15 matches this term.

Except that it isn’t really 15 that are responsible for the bulk of it. Eight of the goals have occurred in the last nine matches. For five of the six full seasons between 2017/18 and 2022/23, Liverpool conceded eight times or fewer in total from set pieces. Aaron Briggs out?

The recent eight include three opening goals, two winners and an equaliser at Elland Road on Saturday. Never mind the volume feel the cost, or something.

Ao Tanaka’s goal for Leeds had no assist, like those against Liverpool for Will Osula, Ismaïla Sarr, Dango Outtara, Murillo and Morgan Gibbs-White before it. Teams don’t need complex routines, they can just launch the ball into the Reds’ box to exploit the chaos which unfolds. Even when there has been an official assist, it hasn’t come from the set piece itself. It’s a second phase problem.

Does this suggest things should improve if Liverpool's concentration in such situations does likewise? Perhaps, though this does not look a mentally strong team, for very obvious, deeply traumatic reasons. There is thankfully a more justified cause for optimism. The only hope is that it is not too late for this season.