There’s one image a lot of us can’t quite shake when set pieces come up: Alexis Mac Allister, a brilliant footballer in his own right, ending up responsible for a towering opponent at a decisive moment. Whether you point at the Carabao Cup final moment people always reference or just the broader pattern, it feeds the same feeling: Liverpool have been too willing to live dangerously from dead balls.
And the truth is, when it keeps happening, it stops looking like bad luck and starts looking like planning. Or at least, a lack of the right planning. You can talk about individual concentration all you want, but set pieces are supposed to be the most coachable part of football. Everyone’s set. Everyone knows what’s coming. If the match-up still doesn’t make sense, that’s on the staff as much as the players.
Slot can’t be completely miles away from it
It’s easy for fans to laser-focus on a specialist coach, because set pieces feel like a neat little department you can fix by changing one person. But Arne Slot is the head coach. He’s not a passenger on first-team details, and he’ll have final sign-off on what Liverpool do on the training pitch and how we set up on matchday.
So if there’s frustration aimed at set-piece work, Slot has to wear some of it too. Not because he’s solely to blame, but because it’s his staff, his priorities, and his responsibility to step in if something isn’t working. Leaving a problem to fester is still a decision.
The hierarchy picked the structure
There’s another layer here that supporters sometimes skip over. Clubs don’t just hire a coach and hope for the best, they build a structure around him. If someone’s been placed into a role they’re not ready for, that isn’t only an individual failing. It’s recruitment, planning and oversight.
That’s why “equal blame” makes sense: the person doing the work, the people who appointed them, and the head coach who oversees the final product. You can’t sack everyone, and you probably shouldn’t try. But you can demand standards and react quicker when something keeps biting you.
Change is fine, but it has to be real change
Nobody enjoys seeing someone lose their job, and it’s fair to wonder if there was a better way, maybe shifting responsibilities into analysis rather than the front line. Especially if someone’s been around elite environments and could still contribute.
Still, if a decision has been made, the hope is it jolts the whole place a bit. Set pieces are margins, and margins decide seasons. The main thing now is simple: learn, adapt, and stop giving opponents cheap routes to hurting us.
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