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Liverpool fans of a certain era need not remember that there used to be a fanzine sold outside of Anfield called ‘Another Wasted Corner’. The Reds were notorious for wasting set piece opportunities, often playing short corners rather than throwing them into the box, with the result that they frequently lost possession and were then ripe to be hit on the counter.
Those days are behind us. Liverpool have scored 52 set pieces since the start of the 2017/18 season, which is at least six more than any other club and well above the average of 37 that the other 13 ever-present Premier League teams have. met in that period.
The most recent of these was scored by Joël Matip in the Reds’ 4-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield, and what’s more, it came from a short corner. The established style of play that was once scorned at Kop and Kemlyn worked very well, as Jordan Henderson passed Mohamed Salah so he could cross for Liverpool’s imposing center-back to head the ball past Rui Patricio.
Jürgen Klopp paid tribute to his substitute Peter Krawietz after the game for coming up with the corner routine that paid off. However, apart from the goal, if anything called attention to the short corners in the game it was the volume that the Wolves displayed.
The visitors had six corners in the match and played all but one against a close teammate instead of sending a cross into the Liverpool box. And although his one-piece shot of the match came as a result of a short corner kick, it only led to an attempt 31 yards from goal, which had an expected goal value of just 0.01 (per Understat).
It was interesting to see that Ajax used their corners in a similar way at Anfield last Tuesday. They also threw six corners and played four shorts. This strategy proved somewhat more fruitful than for the Wolves, as they created an opportunity for Perr Schuurs eight yards from goal (although Liverpool’s reported transfer goal was headed over the bar).
However, after rival teams collectively played four corner kicks against the Reds in their first 14 league and European games in 2020/21, Erik ten Hag’s team matched that tally before the Wolves improved on Sunday. .
Given that Liverpool were deploying an inexperienced goalkeeper in both games, it is perhaps surprising that opposing teams chose to use their corners in this way. The obvious choice would be to test Caoimhin Kelleher’s skill when under pressure in his six-yard box, shooting a cross and watching the 22-year-old take on a group of bodies.
But then perhaps pre-game analysts at Ajax and Wolves knew the young Irishman is proactive in defending his side. He made an excellent high claim against Nuno Espirito Santo’s team, to go with the pair he made against the Dutch in the middle of the week.
And even then, the FBRef statistics show that in a game between Liverpool and Wolves the losers were always likely to use short corners. Only five teams in the Premier League have faced a higher proportion of corners than the Reds have had this season, while the Wolves top the list for using them more often.
Ajax also ranks second in the Champions League this season for the proportion of short corners, so that seems to be one reason why the Reds faced so many such corners in the last week.
The Wolves will have their reasons for using their set pieces in this way, but they haven’t scored a league goal from a short corner so far this season. Roman Saïss headed a Pedro Neto corner kick at Bramall Lane, before Raúl Jiménez scored against Manchester City when an initially cleared corner kick was sent back into the penalty area.
After Liverpool showed them how not to waste another corner with an excellent short corner routine of their own, the visitors will have headed home with something to think about on Sunday.
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