Liverpool's new-look team seeking set-piece improvement

Aaron Briggs has taken on full-time set-piece duties this season and will be aided by new appointment Lewis Mahoney.

Photo: IMAGO | Anfield Index

You’ve probably heard enough by now about an unprecedented transfer window that saw £415m spent, £187m received, and Liverpool’s squad given a complete overhaul.

But there has been significantly less fanfare regarding the major tweaks behind the scenes at the AXA Training Centre this summer, including those relating to Arne Slot’s coaching staff.

That backroom revolution began with the early arrivals of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Xavi Valero and Colin Stewart to replace Johnny Heitinga, Fabian Otte and Claudio Taffarel respectively.

But it is the more recent appointment of Luis Fernando Iuvel as the club’s new individual development lead coach that may end up having the most obvious on-pitch effect early doors.

And that is because it has allowed Aaron Briggs to assume set-piece coaching duties on a full-time basis having previously balanced that task with those that now come under Iubel’s remit.

Liverpool had, of course, advertised for a set-piece coach last summer before ultimately handing duties to Briggs amid suggestions from sources that only the emergence of an ‘outstanding candidate’ would change things.

Clearly, they now believe they already had that in Briggs, and his assumption of full-time duties plus the addition of Lewis Mahoney, who has arrived from Southampton to work as first-team set-piece analyst, is a major show of faith in the methods currently being used.

That said, this new-look team will be under no illusions that there are improvements to be eked out across the coming campaign.

As data from WhoScored shows, the Reds were good but not quite great at defending set-pieces last term en route to winning the title.

Nine goals conceded represents 22% of Liverpool’s entire total in the Premier League in 2024-25, though that is largely because set-pieces represented one of the few ways a mostly solid team could be troubled at all.

It is also interesting to note that purported specialists Arsenal conceded 14 in this manner, despite their impressive record in the opposition box.

Still, the Reds’ aim will be to chase down the likes of Brentford, with the defending of wide free-kicks highlighted as one area for potential improvement.