Arne Slot: 'Set pieces changed everything'

Manager Arne Slot acknowledged that the three goals from set pieces in the 5-2 victory over West Ham were a welcome highlight, especially after a season where Liverpool had significant issues in this area.

Only for the second time in Premier League history, as many as three goals were scored directly from corner kicks within the first half. Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, and Alexis Mac Allister were the scorers for the Anfield side. Liverpool had been the league's worst-performing team in terms of "set-piece goal difference" (the difference between goals scored and conceded from dead-ball situations) by the end of 2025. However, since the start of the new year, they have risen to the top of this statistic.

Despite Liverpool's expected goals (xG) in the match being only 0.7, they still went into halftime with a significant lead. Although they conceded goals to Tomas Soucek and Taty Castellanos for West Ham, goals from Cody Gakpo and an own goal by Axel Disasi helped Liverpool secure their fourth win in their last five Premier League matches, thereby climbing to fifth place in the league table.

Slot shared: "Very pleased because first and foremost, that's the reason we won the game. Secondly, people say 'played very well,' but in my opinion, we have played better when we lost and also performed better when conceding from set pieces. In the first half of the season, almost every set-piece situation we conceded turned into a goal against us. When you start scoring from dead-ball situations, everything looks much brighter and more positive."

When asked what had changed, Slot added: "In the first half of the season, we created quite a few chances but failed to convert them too often. Perhaps one or two small details changed in our defensive and attacking approach, our setup is slightly different, but the main reason is that things have returned to normal."

For this match, Liverpool were without their playmaker Florian Wirtz due to a back injury sustained during the warm-up before last weekend's game against Nottingham Forest. The German international is also likely to miss the upcoming two away fixtures against Wolves next week, in the Premier League (Tuesday) and the FA Cup (Friday).

Slot stated: "Sometimes an injury can progress in a positive or negative way. Currently, we don't think it will take too long, but Tuesday's match is probably too soon. Next week might also be quite tight given the current situation. I thought he might be available today, but that didn't happen."