Image Credits: Imago Images
Liverpool return to Premier League action on Saturday with a trip to Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium. Arne Slot’s side come off a comfortable 3-0 Champions League win at Marseille, where Mohamed Salah returned and both Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo scored.
The Reds sit fourth in the league after four draws in 2026 but risk dropping out of the Champions League places if they fail to win on the south coast. Bournemouth, meanwhile, have slipped to 15th and are struggling after losing Antoine Semenyo to Manchester City.
With just one win in their last 14 matches, Andoni Iraola is still searching for a solution to turn the team’s season around. Liverpool parted ways with set-piece coach Aaron Briggs midway through a season in which the Reds had the joint-worst set-piece record in Europe’s top five leagues.
The Premier League champions have conceded 12 set-piece goals in the top flight, including a corner against Wolves in December. A mutual decision was made for Briggs to depart, just two days before Liverpool’s New Year’s Day 0-0 draw with Leeds United.
Following the departure of set-piece coach Aaron Briggs, Arne Slot has promoted analyst Lewis Mahoney to the matchday bench, according to Liverpool.com. Mahoney joined the Reds from Southampton in September and has served as Liverpool’s first-team set-piece analyst, carrying out most of his work at the AXA Training Centre.
Liverpool have shown a clear improvement defensively, keeping six consecutive games without conceding from a set piece – having allowed 12 set-piece goals in the previous 18 matches. The analysts’ impact was also felt offensively, with Dominik Szoboszlai opening the scoring against Marseille in the 3-0 win with a free-kick under the wall.
“I got told that if no one is lying down then maybe I can have a chance to hit it under the wall,” Szoboszlai told TNT Sports in a post-game interview. “No one was lying down, so I tried it and it worked out!”
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