Arsenal at home Sunday 31st August 430pm

[BigChief]

They're going to score 4 set pieces against us while singing our songs.

I was just thinking we've just played a CL version of Stoke to now face another slightly better CL version of Stoke.

I suppose Newcastle was good practice for the players and for Slot. I would go Gomez for the RB role, height and speed. He's just as un-fresh as Bradley at the moment. But where does that leave Szob?

[memzey]

They're going to score 4 set pieces against us while singing our songs.

[Scratch]

I was just thinking we've just played a CL version of Stoke to now face another slightly better CL version of Stoke.

I suppose Newcastle was good practice for the players and for Slot. I would go Gomez for the RB role, height and speed. He's just as un-fresh as Bradley at the moment. But where does that leave Szob?

I think after how well he did there, I'd like to see Szob keep that place for this game, he's got the pace to deal with any player. Macca should be back, so we will have good midfield cover.

Konate is more of a worry, but maybe he's just taking a few games to get his match brain switched on. He's definitely less focussed than Virg is, you can see that in the training videos that come out, so maybe "flicking the switch" when stepping onto the pitch just isn't happening yet.

[BigChief]

Yeah Konate is everyone's worry. He's more than earned enough credit to see him through this patch as we're still winning and he is still a world class defender, usually.

[RedReet]

Think we need that throw in coach back or some form of setpiece specialist, as we definitely look poor both attacking and defending.

[Exiled_red]

I don't think either Gomez or Bradley will be fit enough to start, best case is probably that they could play 45 mins each, but given how Szoboszlai did against Newcastle I would be surprised if he didn't start there with one or both given minutes from the bench again.

Hopefully a midfield of Gravenberch and MacAllister will be able to control the midfield and we won't get so overrun and can control the game.

Obviously Arsenal's set pieces are something of a concern

[Yozza]

Think we need that throw in coach back or some form of setpiece specialist, as we definitely look poor both attacking and defending.

There's a really good article on The Athletic about our 'Italian' way of defending

Unfortunately it's linked to lots of images & diagrams so I can't imbed it here...

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6575615/2025/08/26/liverpool-set-piece-defending-newcastle/

Why Liverpool’s ‘Italian’ method of defending free kicks seems to be more effective

In an era when football is criticised for its tactical homogeneity, an interesting debate has arisen around the idea of defending a crossed free kick.

It had become the accepted approach to use a high defensive line, keeping opponents away from the box and leaving space in front of the goalkeeper. But in recent years, particularly in Italy, an alternative has emerged. In Serie A, it’s common for teams to sit deep, often in two separate lines, and then come forward and attack the ball.

Historically, the Dutch approach to football is very different from the Italian one, particularly in terms of defensive lines. Whereas Italian football is renowned for deep defending, Dutch coaches want their sides to push up. Therefore, it’s been surprising to see Liverpool manager Arne Slot asking his side to defend free kicks in what could be termed an ‘Italian’ fashion, although rather than Liverpool being positioned in two lines, they tend to be in a single, very deep line.

All this was relevant throughout Liverpool’s 3-2 win over Newcastle, a game which featured a ball-in-play percentage of just 40.8 per cent according to Opta — the lowest in any Premier League game for 15 years, since a 2010 contest between Tony Pulis’ Stoke City and Sam Allardyce’s Blackburn Rovers, two sides based around long balls and set pieces. This was a stop-start match defined by fouls and free kicks.



As the graphic above shows, Liverpool had a lot of free kicks to defend.

Here’s the first one — they’re positioned around 20 yards deeper than you’d expect, and with the free kick being so central, Kieran Trippier has to try something unusual. He goes short to Sandro Tonali, who sweeps the ball towards the far post, where Joelinton and Dan Burn have run to. Virgil van Dijk, however, gets his head to the ball.

Ten minutes later, Newcastle have a free kick in a near-identical situation. Trippier takes a similar approach, this time with Bruno Guimaraes playing the ball into the box, although his delivery is poor and easily cleared.

From closer range, Trippier tries something different: he tries to loft the ball over the defence. But with Liverpool defending deep, and the free kick again in a central position, this is almost impossible. The ball bounces out of play.

Here’s the fourth attempt. This time, Anthony Gordon is trying something different: loitering behind the Liverpool defence in an offside position. He presumably thinks that with the Liverpool defence so close to goal, he might as well position himself where the defenders can’t track him, and hope to be unmarked in a scrappy situation in the box.

In the end, Trippier launches the ball in his general direction, Gordon can’t challenge for it, and the ball bounces through to Alisson.

So, next time, Trippier tried going short again. This time, Gordon was unmarked and Anthony Elanga sped around the outside, but Gordon’s ball to Elanga was played a little wide and Elanga’s off-balance cross was weak.

Into the second half, it’s the same kind of thing. Liverpool’s defence isn’t even in the picture here. But now, with Newcastle down to 10 men and urgently trying to find an equaliser, they don’t want to go short. Lewis Hall goes long and Van Dijk, coming forward onto the ball, again heads clear. Liverpool are comfortable in these situations.

So what happened to make Liverpool defend this situation in the complete opposite manner, holding a high line and allowing Nick Pope to play the ball in behind? Van Dijk appeared to be retreating as normal, only for him to glance over at the bench and then ask his team-mates to hold a high line.

This changes Liverpool’s task enormously. Ibrahima Konate, having previously become accustomed to coming forward to defend the free kick, now has to run 20 yards backwards and therefore can’t jump properly when challenging Dan Burn in the air.

Burn misses the ball, it comes off Konate and runs through to the onrushing William Osula…

… who prods the ball home to make the score 2-2.

“It’s not fair to blame Virgil,” said Slot after the game. “He has contact with us on the bench. All the other ones were further up the pitch, so we know what Newcastle’s idea is: they hit the ball to the ‘D’, Dan Burn is there attacking the ball and trying to make it difficult.

“There were a lot of difficult situations for us coming from that, or a throw-in, or a corner, so at that moment we decided that because the ball was so deep it was smarter not to get a second ball inside our box again — but it was definitely the wrong decision in that moment, looking back.”

And, sure enough, when Liverpool had to defend a similar situation shortly after that concession, Pope’s long ball didn’t work — Alisson was free to come out and claim it.

In the end, Rio Ngumoha’s late winner meant this didn’t cost Liverpool the win, but on the basis of these situations, it makes sense for Liverpool to take a deeper defensive line in the future.

There are some drawbacks, of course. If the defending side loses the first header, it creates a second ball in a potentially dangerous goalscoring situation. But the more you watch clips of teams defending in that manner, the more it seems like a good approach. Not only does it allow the defending side to come forward and attack the ball, but it also seems to cause confusion for the player taking the free kick because they’re so accustomed to simply whipping the ball in behind.

Watch out for these sorts of scenarios in Liverpool’s showdown with Arsenal on Sunday — the modern-day masters of set-piece routines are likely to have something special planned for their trip to Anfield.

[BigChief]

That was a good article and explained a bit about why Konate looked a donkey for their goal. Konate was obviously comfortable enough alongside VvD for all the other set pieces.

Also good to see Slot hold his hands up and learn from this lesson. I wonder if Arsenal will now practice countering the 'Italian defending'?

[RedReet]

There's a really good article on The Athletic about our 'Italian' way of defending

Unfortunately it's linked to lots of images & diagrams so I can't imbed it here...

.

I did wonder when I posted it if it's one of those things that perception is much worse than reality, but I do remember thinking our set pieces were **** last year, felt on edge with every one conceded against Newcastle and ultimately conceded from a long throw and free kick.

Will be curious to keep an eye on it going forward. Probably explains why Virg is dominating heading stats this season.

[vlahka]

For that style of defending you need someone whos a master of the air, whos untouchable. Someone like.... Nat.

[RedReet]

From Athletic...

'Liverpool advertised for a specialist set-piece coach last summer but unable to find a suitable candidate it was decided that it would become part of Briggs’ responsibilities.'

Surely there is someone, somewhere?

[BG1973]

This feels like such a huge game at the moment, but it probably isn't when thinking about a whole season. After all, it felt like a huge moment when City drew in the 98th minute at home to Arsenal last October, but that turned out to be largely irrelevant

Having said that, I think this game will tell us a lot about both sides - Arsenal will batter us with set pieces, and we seem to have some clear vulnerabilities there, at least in winning our individual duels

Arsenal will also sit pretty deep, I reckon, and not commit too many men forward, so it's up to us to break them down.

I do think Wirtz will be particularly influential here, and am expecting / hoping him to be the difference maker this Sunday

We just really, really need to win our individual battles

The points maybe irrelevant at this stage but the psychological impact is huge.

[frank the tank]

Yip I agree. I think arsenal would celebrate a draw like a win. They must be gutted that we came back and won against Newcastle because the pressure on us would have been huge if we drew. Or lost.

The fact that there are 2 weeks to stew over dropped points over the international break here is big too.

[BG1973]

From Athletic...

'Liverpool advertised for a specialist set-piece coach last summer but unable to find a suitable candidate it was decided that it would become part of Briggs’ responsibilities.'

Surely there is someone, somewhere?

We're strong at set pieces anyway.

Danger of over focusing on it and playing for free kicks.. think we're fine as we are.

[RedReet]

We're strong at set pieces anyway.

Danger of over focusing on it and playing for free kicks.. think we're fine as we are.

We're joint bottom and considering we would have more setpieces than those around us, I'd say we are officially the worst.

I did think we were quite bad last year, just never really checked the stats.