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It only took eight minutes. From the first set pieces Liverpool faced after Virgil van Dijk was substituted at Goodison Park on Saturday, they conceded a goal.
To make matters worse, Michael Keane’s header came from a location that the Reds’ defensive master probably would have been occupying. Not that Liverpool didn’t concede goals in dead ball situations when Van Dijk played, of course, but their influence was clearly illustrated in goals against figures. Between 2009/10 and 2016/17, the Reds conceded an average of 11.9 set pieces in the league each season, and never fewer than 10. In the three seasons since then, the numbers have been seven or eight each year. .
And that improvement in the goal column is not a coincidence either, as the number of expected shots and goals that Jürgen Klopp’s team has conceded in set pieces has also decreased in the last three years. Where Liverpool faced between 97 and 119 set pieces in the three full seasons before the addition of Van Dijk, they have not conceded more than 78 in the last three seasons (via Understat). The average xG per year also dropped from 11.5 to 8.4 for that pair of three-year samples.
Alisson Becker’s presence is also relevant to the overall improvement (the numbers have been even lower in just the last two seasons) and his return to the team cannot come soon enough. But Liverpool will clearly have to modify their set pieces defense plan in the absence of their number four.
The logical first step would be to aim for fewer corners and free kicks in the first place. However, there is little Liverpool can do here as they were already doing well. They committed the fewest fouls in the Premier League last season (by WhoScored), and have won the Premier League Fair Play award for the past four seasons, as Klopp noted after the Merseyside derby.
The Reds allowed 160 corners against them in their 2019/20 title-winning campaign, the most in a full season with Klopp, but still the fourth-fewest in the division (by Footstats). And having conceded just eight in the first five games of 2020/21, they appear to have closed on that front.
But we saw that it doesn’t necessarily matter how many corners an attacking team has if they do everything right and your defense fails in one of them. Everton had just two corners in Saturday’s derby, and the one they scored was the only one they got directly into Liverpool’s penalty area.
Like most teams these days, the Reds defend set pieces with a mix of zonal and man-to-man marking. In his time at the club, Rafa Benítez was ridiculed by closed-minded experts for opting for the former, but it proved very effective. Klopp is unlikely to change things too much, but the problem with Everton’s decisive corner was clear: Joël Matip was nowhere near the key action.
The Cameroonian was located in the center of both the six-yard area and the goal frame at the point where James Rodriguez took the corner. Matip barely moved when Michael Keane moved back and earned a header while jumping (and not particularly high) between Fabinho and Roberto Firmino.
This cannot be allowed to happen again. Throughout his Liverpool careers, Matip is the only player on the team who comes close to being as dominant in the air as Van Dijk. The Dutchman has won 74.6% of his aerial duels in the Premier League since joining the club, and Matip is next in line with 70.9.
Fabinho has a decent track record for a defensive midfielder, but his 56.6% win rate is still only a shadow above the ‘coin toss’ odds, and Firmino’s figure of 26.4, although many of the duels he has played will have been punts forward from the back – illustrates why Keane always had him.
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The Reds would likely benefit from making better use of Jordan Henderson in such situations. The captain was leading the six-yard area with Robertson for the fateful corner at Goodison, and well placed to punt in case the ball was thrown low and hard to the near post. However, once he was sent high to the six-yard box, Henderson was knocked out of the picture, and with a 60.8% aerial game win rate since the start of 2015/16, he needs to be in the center of the action a bit more when Liverpool defend set pieces.
And the return of Alisson, who has won 18 of his 19 aerial duels in the Premier League, will also help, as he is far more proactive in such situations than his substitute. Klopp doesn’t need to make bulk changes, but a slight tactical adjustment can definitely help his team overcome Van Dijk’s absence from defending dead balls.
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