If Liverpool are serious about fixing their set-piece problems, they must now hire a specialist on that aspect of the game or risk losing further ground to their rivals.

It came as no real surprise that the Premier League champions have parted company with Aaron Briggs, given the shocking returns from the department he has been fronting up this season.

Briggs was tasked with keeping the set-piece numbers strong after impressing in a wider-ranging coaching role last season, but Liverpool have conceded 12 times from dead-ball situations in the 2025-26 Premier League and only scored three themselves, leading to consternation in press conferences from head coach Arne Slot, who says it’s “impossible” to compete with those above them in the table when there is such a negative imbalance.

Slot shoulders a degree of responsibility as the head coach, but hasn’t been so forthcoming in expanding on that publicly. And now Briggs is out, it will initially fall on the remaining members of the coaching staff — such as Sipke Hulshoff and Giovanni van Bronckhorst — to put an end to their dead-ball deficiencies.

That minus-nine balance is already Liverpool’s worst at any stage of a season in the 33-year Premier League era, and no team in Europe’s top five domestic leagues have conceded more set-piece goals than them. Liverpool also look particularly poor when defending against corners, with only West Ham United (10) conceding more goals from those situations than their total of seven.

Yet perhaps it’s the attacking figures — an average of 2.4 goals scored per 100 set plays — that have forced the club into a rethink. Although Briggs was a useful member of the coaching team during the 2024-25 title success, he did not take on this season’s role as an ‘expert’ in the field.

Granted, the 38-year-old was well qualified generally, following spells as the assistant at top-flight German side Wolfsburg and tactical analysis coach, assistant coach and head of football methodology at Monaco of France’s Ligue 1, following nine years in various roles at Manchester City. But the opportunity only came about after an unsuccessful search for a specialist was ended in September and the club’s owners at Fenway Sports Group (FSG) assigned Briggs to the role instead.

Aaron Briggs, right, seemed to lose the faith of head coach Arne Slot (Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)

Before that, Liverpool had placed job adverts on LinkedIn as they scoured the market for a suitable candidate. Several set-piece analysts held discussions with the Premier League’s title winners over the summer but were not convinced they would be given full authority to implement their ideas.