Need more than a Virgil

> Liverpool don’t concede the most goals from corners, but there is still a big problem that Van Dijk won’t fix

JAMIES Carragher and Redknapp started the new Premier League season with a regular debate from the last campaign: why do Liverpool concede so many from set-pieces and how can Jürgen Klopp fix it? The question may be old but it remains a pertinent one, with two of Watford’s goals coming from corners in the 3-3 draw at Vicarage Road on Saturday.

While arguing that the addition of Southampton’s Virgil van Dijk would solve the problem, Redknapp claimed: “Liverpool have conceded more goals from set pieces than anybody else.” Strictly, he was right, if he was talking about this season only and therefore, at the time, a total of two games.

A look at the whole of the 370-game 2016/17 campaign, however, paints a much clearer picture of how well Premier League teams defend set-plays and, perhaps surprisingly, Liverpool were far from the top flight’s worst offenders.

Last season, Klopp’s side conceded 12 Premier League goals from set pieces, the joint-9th highest in the division, alongside Burnley and Everton. Relegated Hull City conceded the most from setplays, shipping 21, with Crystal Palace following shortly behind with 20.

According to those numbers then, Liverpool were not the worst at defending set-pieces, just plain average. Indeed, dig a layer deeper and the numbers are more favourable still. The total number of chances conceded from set-pieces was 110, the fifthbest record in the division, coming in with one chance fewer than Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United.

Something about Klopp’s methods for defending set-plays clearly works but when presented together, these two statistics invite the key question: why are Liverpool conceding so many goals if they do not give up many chances?

With 12 goals conceded from 110 efforts, around 11 per cent of the shots they allowed from set-plays resulted in a goal. It may not sound a lot but only Crystal Palace, Hull, Watford and the club of one Virgil van Dijk, Southampton, were worse.

David Moyes’ dire Sunderland conceded the most set-piece chances of any team but when those chances came, they at least defended them better than Liverpool, only allowing eight per cent to slip through. Arsenal were the best, allowing only six of 134 set-piece chances to go in. A group of physical sides, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion, Burnley and Chelsea, join them in the top five.

Liverpool do have a problem then, but it is a curious one. Klopp’s current methods appear to limit the number of chances his team concedes from set-plays but when those chances come, they are quality chances and converted far too often.

Would Van Dijk help solve this? A little, maybe, but the issue seems more systemic. As Carragher rightly pointed out in what became quite a heated debate, teams defend set-pieces, not individuals.

Van Dijk, whose messiah status on Merseyside grows with every day his transfer saga rumbles on, cannot do it alone. He cannot head every ball, mark every zone or even simply ‘lead’ or ‘organise’ a team to set-piece dominance if his teammates are adhering to a flawed system.

Van Dijk or no Van Dijk, Liverpool need to reduce the disproportionately high number of quality chances they concede from set-pieces and this will most likely require a change of routine rather than personnel.

Only then will the problem be a thing of the past. – The Independent