Liverpool’s second goal against Leeds came as a result of a corner, and creating shooting opportunities from these dead-ball situations has been a theme of the campaign so far
Liverpool got back to winning ways on Sunday with an impressive 3-0 victory over Leeds United.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane arrived either side of a rare strike for Fabinho to seal an impressive three points for the Reds.
The Brazilian’s goal arrived at a great time, just five minutes into the second half, and came via a corner situation, with the Liverpool midfielder reacting quickest to a knockdown from Virgil Van Dijk.
It’s been a huge boost to Liverpool’s attacking threat from these dead-balls situations having Van Dijk back in the side. The Dutchman of course missed a large portion of the last campaign as a result of the knee injury sustained in the 2-2 draw vs Everton last October.
Yet now back, he’s once again the main focus of Liverpool’s deliveries and the biggest threat for the opposition to deal with.
The result of that is situations like the one we saw Sunday leading up to Fabinho’s goal which is even when tightly marked, opponents struggle to track Van Dijk, meaning they’re rarely able to stop him when trying to compete in one v one duels in the air.
Even when Van Dijk isn’t the focus of that specific set-piece though, teams can often over focus on his threat, creating valuable openings in which other Liverpool players can exploit.
For the above reasons, it therefore might not come as a surprise to note that so far, no side has netted more than Liverpool’s two goals from corners across their opening four Premier League matches.
Yet what’s even more impressive is the number of shots the Reds have managed to generate from corners so far.
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