In addition to Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota, and Ben Doak, Liverpool possesses a secret weapon that has already paid off this season.
It makes sense for adversaries to prioritize the Reds’ attacking trio, whoever they may be. Three difficulties are soon becoming five and six for whoever counters Jurgen Klopp’s team because of the menace the new-look midfield poses.
The Reds have experienced more success recently away from their offensive, dominating the charts for their output of goals from set-pieces. Such a finding doesn’t come as much of a surprise to Liverpool fans because Klopp made a point of emphasizing it as a crucial path to success when he first assumed control of the team.
Liverpool had a horrible season last year, but they still had the most goals from set pieces with 17.
Pep Lijnders, Klopp’s assistant, described the modification to the practice field that might indicate future success. He stated: “I said to Jurgen, ‘I have this idea, we should create a set piece pitch.'” During a podcast with Training Ground Guru.
So, after training today, we spent 15 minutes there, and I built four boxes with a net in the middle of them. Only in-swingers are being trained on one side, and on both sides, I’ve placed this basketball net at the spot where I want players to shoot at it.
“Only wide free kicks on one box, only penalties and straight free kicks on the other, and a finishing workout in the D. The players are switched for 15 minutes.
The superior quality opportunities on goal were emphasized by the xG of 12.48 from corners last season. Similar to that, the Reds scored six goals from 39 shots at an xG of 6.27 from set pieces, but statistically they were still doing poorly.
Liverpool has averaged 7.5 corners per game in its first four outings. Liverpool has scored twice in 16 attempts that have been made from corners so far. With an xG output of 1.52 and a set-piece production xG of 1.00, they are outperforming the predicted targets.
Manchester City, who are tied for first place in the league for goals from set pieces, have a 0.77 xG from corners and a 0.92 xG from other circumstances.
In contrast, Klopp’s team outperforms its competitors in terms of predicted goals from set pieces and corners, ranking among the top teams in both categories. The statistics underscore the threat that these circumstances have for the Reds by showcasing the caliber of chances that Liverpool is producing closer to the goal from set-pieces.
