Liverpool and conceding from set pieces. Does that sound like a familiar problem?

Wolverhampton Wanderers were the latest to profit from Liverpool’s defensive vulnerabilities, with Santiago Bueno scoring from close range after Alisson Becker had saved Tolu Arokodare’s initial header in Saturday’s 2-1 home victory.

The good news is that Liverpool are now winning games despite the glaring frailties. The bad news is their inability to defend set pieces shows no signs of stopping.

Saturday was the second successive game that Arne Slot’s side have led by two goals before conceding from a set piece, halving their advantage and making things uncomfortable.

Before the Wolves match, the Liverpool head coach spoke of being “so annoyed” by the situation, just over a month after labelling the number of goals his side were conceding from set pieces as “close to ridiculous”. Including penalties, 54 per cent of the league goals Liverpool have conceded have been from set pieces.

Excluding penalties, no side has conceded more goals from set pieces this season (12) than Liverpool in the Premier League. Only West Ham (10) have conceded more from corners than Liverpool’s seven.

Liverpool are averaging 2.4 goals scored per 100 set pieces. Only one team (Brentford) is averaging fewer. In terms of conceding, Liverpool are averaging 8.2 goals per 100 set pieces — again, only one team is averaging more (Nottingham Forest).

Why is that?

When Slot was appointed in June 2024, Liverpool attempted to recruit a set-piece coach, but after an unsuccessful search, they assigned the role to Aaron Briggs, who had joined the club as first-team individual development coach in the same summer. Briggs moved into the set-piece coach role permanently for this campaign, and set-piece analyst Lewis Mahoney joined from Southampton.

What is odd about the struggles is that Wolves’ goal was the closest an opposition team have come to scoring a standard set-piece goal — where a player delivers a ball into the box and it is finished by a team-mate without interruption. It suggests the initial setup — which is a mixture of zonal and man marking — is preventing free headers at goal, but is failing to deal with what comes next.

“For me, it’s not the setup, because it’s the same setup as we had last season, where we hardly conceded,” Slot said when speaking to reporters after the 3-3 draw at Leeds on December 6, in which his side conceded a 96th-minute equaliser from a corner.

“In this setup, there are a lot of similar players that are mainly important. So, tell me what it is. If I tell you now it’s bad luck, then you will probably say that’s a bit too much after 15 games.”

Considering their expected goals conceded per 100 set pieces is only 4.0, Slot’s suggestion of bad luck could be supported. They are conceding at double the rate expected based on the opposition’s quality of chances. However, it also underlines a sustained underperformance.

What is clear is that Liverpool must improve their second-phase defending.

“It hurts,” captain Virgil van Dijk told reporters after the victory over Wolves when asked about the issue. “Each and every one of us has to take responsibility. It’s not been good enough.

“There have been plenty of games when we have defended them very well, but the fact is we’ve conceded too many set-piece goals. It’s about repetition, training, analysing. It’s something we have to improve. I’d say at least 75 per cent of the time, or even more, it’s not even about the first contact. It’s the second phase that is the killer.”

After Arokodare peeled off Alexis Mac Allister and out-jumped Ibrahima Konate, Alisson’s reflex save only parried the ball out to Bueno. There is an element of right place at the right time, but the Liverpool players close to him — Van Dijk and Hugo Ekitike — had stepped out, leaving that space vacant.

It was more obvious against Tottenham last Saturday. After Rodrigo Bentancur won the initial header, Richarlison, who was under pressure from Mac Allister, headed the ball to Brennan Johnson. His shot was blocked by Van Dijk, but Joao Palhinha directed the ball back across goal and Richarlison netted.

Liverpool’s captain received criticism for his unsuccessful swipe at the ball as it travelled towards the Tottenham striker, but he was at least trying to do something. A number of players, including Mac Allister, who was marking Richarlison, failed to react.

There is size in the squad, but only Van Dijk and Konate are dominant aerially. If they are neutralised by the opposition — as Nottingham Forest managed by blocking the former’s attempt to head the ball for their first goal in the images below, from November 22 — their team-mates need to be ready to react. In that case, Dominik Szoboszlai lost Murillo and the defender scored.

In Liverpool’s 3-2 victory at Newcastle on August 25, when Konate was beaten in the air by Dan Burn, Ryan Gravenberch failed to track William Osula, who made it 2-2, before Rio Ngumoha’s late winner.

The second-phase problem has been a theme for long throw-ins, too, even when Liverpool have won the first contact.

Also against Newcastle, Gravenberch headed the initial throw-in away, but Tino Livramento had time to cross and Bruno Guimaraes took advantage of poor defending from Milos Kerkez to head in the home side’s first goal.

In the 3-2 defeat at Brentford on October 25, they did not win the first contact as Kristoffer Ajer easily rose above Ekitike and Conor Bradley to flick the ball on for Dango Ouattara.

Against Crystal Palace on September 27, Eddie Nketiah’s late winner in a 2-1 defeat for Slot’s side came after Liverpool won the first contact but lost the next two duels.

It also highlighted another issue: the attacking instincts of Liverpool’s players. With the scores level against Palace, Jeremie Frimpong moved forward, appearing to prepare for a late counter-attack. That left Nketiah free at the back post, and Liverpool’s right-back was unable to recover in time to prevent the goal.

A similar situation happened against Manchester United on October 19. In this instance, it was Cody Gakpo and Curtis Jones who left the men they were marking. When Bruno Fernandes delivered a cross into the box, there were three players unmarked at the back post, including goalscorer Harry Maguire.

In both games, Liverpool had made attacking changes, weakening them defensively, and they were punished. The Maguire goal also highlighted Liverpool’s lack of concentration at quickly taken set pieces. Bruno Fernandes was able to find Bryan Mbuemo on the edge of the area. The closest player was Mohamed Salah, but the Manchester United attacker was able to get a shot off.

Back in the Nottingham Forest game in November, Liverpool had just made a substitution that included a reshuffling of positions. When play restarted, Murillo quickly switched to Omari Hutchinson. Andy Robertson was slow to react and was then beaten by the winger. Alisson saved the initial effort, but the slow reaction of Liverpool’s players allowed Morgan Gibbs-White to score the follow-up.

We saw something similar against Manchester City on November 9. For the home side’s second goal in a 3-0 win, few Liverpool players were looking at the ball when Bernardo Silva took a short corner. Phil Foden and Nico Gonzalez were left in acres of space on the edge of the box. The latter’s shot hit Van Dijk and wrong-footed Giorgi Mamardashvili.

What Slot and his set-piece coach cannot account for is individual errors, and Gravenberch has been at the scene of the crime on a handful of occasions at the back post.

Against Crystal Palace in September, he headed the ball back into the six-yard box instead of away from goal, straight to Ismaila Sarr, who tapped home for the opener.

It was very similar to Wataru Endo’s misdirected header in the Carabao Cup against Southampton in the previous game, which resulted in the same outcome.

Gravenberch was also unable to clear the corner that led to Leeds’ dramatic leveller earlier this month. Dominic Calvert-Lewin got away from Mac Allister, his blocker, to challenge the midfielder. Gravenberch was not assertive and failed to head the ball. Instead, it landed at the feet of Ao Tanaka, who scored.

Since arriving at Liverpool, Slot has spoken about wanting to have a positive “set-piece balance”. His team are a considerable distance from achieving that in the Premier League this season. Excluding penalties, their balance is -9, having only scored three.

The physicality and direction of the league is something Liverpool have yet to adapt to, highlighted by them being much better at both attacking and defending set pieces in the Champions League.

Slot’s frustration remains, but Liverpool winning games despite their set-piece flaws has allowed him to approach the topic differently.

“Unfortunately, we’re maybe the only team that hardly ever scores from a set piece and, even worse, we constantly concede,” Slot told reporters after the Wolves game. “But then, I think I said a few weeks ago, we have to make sure that when things go against us, we still need to find a way to win the game.

“In the last two games, we conceded a set piece but we were able to win, and that hasn’t happened that many times this season. That’s, again, progress for me, but it’s obvious there are more things for us to improve and this is definitely one of them.”

It may be some form of progress, but real progress would be to defend them better consistently.