Why are Liverpool suddenly so effective from corners?

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"Our setup is slightly different, but the biggest reason is that things have gone back to normal," Arne Slot rationalised after victory over West Ham at the weekend, where Liverpool scored three times from corner situations in the first half of a 5-2 win.Seven of Liverpool's last nine Premier League goals, in fact, have come from set-pieces and five of those were corners. Image: Virgil van Dijk scored directly from a corner in victory over West Ham So, how have Liverpool gone from the league's worst-ranked team to one of the best in a matter of weeks?

Under Slot's instruction, and in line with most other teams in the league, inswinging corners have become commonplace. This ploy has a higher success rate directly, as evidenced by Van Dijk's header, and indirectly, as shown by Ekitike's opener.Mateus Fernandes even told Sky Sports at full-time at Anfield that his side had worked all week on a plan to stop Van Dijk, now the second-highest scoring central defender in Premier League history behind John Terry.

When Ekitike's most reliable supply line, Florian Wirtz, is unavailable to provide passes from open play - either because he has been nullified or is absent altogether, as was the case here - it's vital that Liverpool's only fit striker can be a set-play threat. This becomes even more more important when you consider Slot's side are the fourth-highest generators of corner kicks in the division (163) - with only seven fewer than Arsenal (170).The Gunners might still be the gold standard in terms of set-play conversion, but as Dutchman has acknowledged many times and is illustrated in the graphic above, Liverpool have never been shy of set-play creation.Now, with the help of some subtle tweaks to zonal play and delivery, they are finally making good on those chances.