REVEALED: Why Alexis Mac Allister is now taking corners for Liverpool

Alexis Mac Allister has been promoted.

The World Cup winner is now a set piece taker for Liverpool. The former Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder replaced Andrew Robertson as the player to take corners from the right for the Reds in their 2-0 win over Manchester City on Sunday.

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He took four corners at Anfield, the most of any player on the pitch, and this seemed to coincide with Arne Slot’s men carving out chances from these dead-ball situations. Virgil van Dijk headed against the post after Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai were involved in a short corner.

The skipper then missed an even better chance in the first half after the Liverpool No10 picked the Dutchman out from a corner kick. The chance can be visualised below with a shot map courtesy of FotMob.

The game against the reigning champions was the first time Mac Allister has taken a corner kick in the Premier League this season. The 25-year-old took 11 last term for the Reds and 12 during his final campaign for Brighton but prior to Sunday, he hadn’t been needed for one of those dead ball situations.

It might be a tactic that is here to stay though. Liverpool are once again all about those marginal gains. Earlier in the summer, the club advertised for a set piece coach.

The Reds wanted a UEFA A License coach or equivalent and they needed to be a “tactical specialist” capable of conducting “thorough analysis and meticulous planning”, while also having “the ability to expertly coach both offensive and defensive set-piece strategies.”

They would report into the new Sporting Director, Richard Hughes. The role was vacant following the departure of Jurgen Klopp’s Assistant Manager Peter Krawietz.

Aaron Briggs, brought in as first team individual development coach this summer, initially filled the role and having impressed in the interim, the search for a full-time candidate was paused. This was revealed by David Lynch back in September.

You can understand why the search was halted. The New York Times credited those involved in the set piece analysis for the win over AC Milan in the Champions League, claiming the Reds had identified a weakness in the build-up to the game. Mike Maignan was slow to come off his line from set pieces and Liverpool planned to take advantage of this. It worked, with Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate both scoring.

Briggs and his team may have noticed something when analysing Manchester City defending set pieces recently. This could be why Mac Allister was given the opportunity from the right. It was a successful experiment too with the Argentine creating the joint-most shots (four) and finishing the game with an Expected Assists total of 0.2. For context, Andrew Robetson had six corners against Southampton but finished with an Expected Assists haul of just 0.1.

In a low-scoring sport like football, set pieces can be invaluable.

The fact Liverpool are trying different things shows that they're taking them seriously and view them as an undervalued opportunity.

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