Image credit: Imago Images
Liverpool’s season has effectively been split into two parts: before they fixed their set-pieces and after they fixed them.
Arne Slott’s side had a soft touch in the first half of the season until dead balls started to derail their ambitions.
In Europe, the numbers looked good – five goals scored, none conceded from set pieces, a healthy balance of five.
But at home it’s a different story. In the Premier League, where Slott says, “Set-pieces have become more important than last year,” Liverpool scored just three goals and scored 12 points, resulting in a disastrous balance of -9. Slott admitted that with such numbers it would be “impossible” to win the league.
Something had to give, and it did. Set-piece coach Aaron Briggs was given responsibility for the dead-ball routine, but left his role around the turn of the year as Liverpool looked for a new direction.
Into that void stepped a relatively obscure figure, Lewis Mahoney.
The 27-year-old Welshman arrived from Southampton in September as a first-team set-piece analyst and previously worked at Bristol Rovers and Swansea, but most of his work has been done away from the spotlight at the AXA training center. After Briggs’ departure, Mahoney was promoted to a more prominent role on the bench on matchdays, effectively becoming the brains behind Liverpool’s revamped dead-ball strategy.
The impact was dramatic. Lewis Steele It has been reported that Liverpool’s set pieces have become much more balanced since Mahony’s influence has grown.
Since Mahoney arrived, nine goals have been scored and just two conceded in all competitions. The swing from -9 to +7 not only strengthened the defensive side, but corner kicks and free kicks became real weapons again, making the likes of Virgil van Dijk suddenly look more threatening inside the opposition box.
While Slott still sees it as a collective effort, there is a clear understanding within camp that Mahoney’s meticulous analysis and creative routines have quietly turned one of Liverpool’s biggest weaknesses into a strength.
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