Liverpool’s set-piece problems

Liverpool’s impressive start to the season continued at Swansea on Saturday, with a fifth win in seven Premier League matches – but they needed a second-half comeback after once again coming unstuck from a set-piece situation.

The Reds fell behind to the struggling Swans after just eight minutes when Gylfi Sigurdsson’s corner caused problems and Leroy Fer eventually tapped in from close range.

Roberto Firmino and James Milner struck back to ensure the goal wouldn’t cost Liverpool points but defending dead balls is becoming a recurring problem.

Liverpool have conceded 16 times from corners and free-kicks since Jurgen Klopp took charge in October 2015. Only Swansea (18) have conceded more in the Premier League in that time.  

The Reds’ tally for this season is now up to three, meaning almost one third of the goals they’ve let in have come from set-piece routines. It’s a significant number and an area which clearly concerns Klopp.

He went into detail about Liverpool’s approach to defending corners on Monday Night Football, telling Jamie Carragher that, although he felt his team were improving, they were limited by their height and so must use zonal-marking methods to keep out more physical opposition.

“We have to be more creative,” he said. “At Dortmund we had a lot of man marking because we had a lot of tall players – here we had to find …

continue reading in source www.skysports.com