Should Liverpool adapt their defending corners for Newcastle’s game? | OneFootball

By Andrew Hanna

Should Liverpool adapt their defending corners for Newcastle’s game?

Newcastle hosts Liverpool on Sunday, the last time they faced each other, the Magpies had cracking set pieces despite they were playing with 10 men after Pope was sent off. The Magpies are already known for their brilliant set pieces but today we will try to think how Liverpool could adapt their defending set-pieces routine in getting ready for today’s game.

First of all, how does Liverpool defend the corner kicks? They usually use a first line of 5 zonal players as shown below, with one near-post defender ‘Henderson’ & two man markers Trent & Gakpo highlighted in Red.

This shape got the two-man markers against 4 runners from Newcastle. Burn, Schar, Botman & Jeolinton with only one standing player, Isak.

Normally they would have another player with Isak against Liverpool’s first line but that didn’t happen for Pope’s red card. Isak who was positioned almost centrally inside the six-yard box made a run towards the near post ‘fake flick run’ to drag the near post defender Henderson and the first two zonal players Robertson & Gomez with him, along with Fabian Schar who made the same run to drag the first man marker with him TAA and Jeolinton on the other side towards the far post to drag the other man marker Gakpo, now both Botman and Burn are free to run towards Liverpool’s first line.

Now a space is created between the 2nd and 3rd zonal players ‘Gomez & Nunez’ which is utilised immediately by Dan Burn on the near post who hit the bar and missed a big goal-scoring chance for the home side.

Moreover, Here Isak is standing with Alisson to prevent him from punching the ball while Jolinton positioned behind the far post is dragging one marker with him ‘Gakpo’ and pinning the last zonal player ‘Fabinho’ away from the targeted area which was the far post. Botman who was standing behind Van Dijk made a run towards the centre trying to drag the Dutch defender who was aware enough to stay in his position, leaving Schar on Trent & Burn was Free, the intention was to reach Burn on the far post.

Schar easily escaped Trent’s marking alongside Burn; they made a 2v1 situation against Virgil. Schar won the contact but wasted another big chance.

Exactly the same routine happened in the first half and Schar was free winning the contact which was blocked by Fabinho and then another time by Van Dijk after Botman won the second ball.

What is recommended for Liverpool is that they have to increase their man markers on the second line instead of the near post & the 5 zonal players. During the last season New Castle suffered more against teams defending with 3 or 4-man markers this is what teams like Man City, Brighton, Fulham & Arsenal did against them and it was more efficient.

If there was no short option, it’s even better to have 4 man markers on the second line with four zonal on the first, or five zonal players and three-man markers, one of the markers can press a short option if present.

Liverpool are well known for their solid set-pieces defending for years & being one of the first teams to work on their set- pieces both attacking & defending. However, New Castle also is brilliant at the same phase and the last season may be even better. It will be interesting to see whether LFC will use the same defending structure or will have to adapt.