John Aldridge suggests Palace win shows Liverpool have found a decent corner taker in Philippe Coutinho

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Coutinho provided two corner kicks to assist Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren in the 4-2 win over Crystal Palace, though statistics suggest Liverpool do carry a threat from set-plays in general in recent seasons.

Former Liverpool striker John Aldridge has wrote in the Liverpool Echo that he believes the side now has a player who can take good corners after two of Philippe Coutinho’s corners led to goals in the Reds 4-2 win over Crystal Palace at the weekend.

The Reds’ legend seems to believe the Reds haven’t been making the most of opportunities from set-pieces, but headed goals from Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip at the weekend show the side can carry an aerial threat.

Liverpool’s Joel Matip scores their third goal

Aldridge wrote in his Liverpool Echo column: “The fact that we’ve found a corner taker is also a real positive. Our corners have been horrendous for a long time, I could never see us scoring from them. But Philippe Coutinho put in some really good deliveries and hopefully we’ll stick with him now.

“We’ve scored against a big team through the two centre-halves. It shows you we can do it with a quality of service which gives you a chance to attack the ball. Set-pieces are so important. You look at the goals over a season from a team who wins the league or gets close.”

Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho shoots at goal

A lot of the talk surrounding Liverpool and set-pieces in recent weeks has been their inability to defend from them adequately, not from the weekend, though.

If you look at Liverpool’s set-piece threat last season (2015/16), the statistics indicate they carried a decent threat in comparison with the rest of the league

The last time Liverpool seriously challenged for the Premier League title, people talked about their ability to pick up cheap goals from set-pieces in 2013/14. They topped the list from that season, but if you look at the other teams that file behind them, it would suggest that a high amount of set-piece goals isn’t necessarily a catalyst for success, though it can help! Note that Fulham and Cardiff City were sides who were relegated from the Premier League that season.

The table from this season’s set-plays below suggests that Liverpool’s work on Saturday has taken them joint top of that particular league, with set-piece specialists West Bromwich Albion the only side to match them in that particular area.

There’s nothing wrong with demanding more of a threat from set-plays, but the numbers from recent seasons suggest Liverpool have been doing that. When it comes to corners, you always get so many of them so the chances are you are going to get some poor deliveries into the area. If you ask a football fan of any club, they would probably suggest they could get more goals from set-pieces.

The positive for Liverpool is they know for a fact they can be threatening from them.