Arne Slot hails Liverpool’s set-piece strength – and provides latest Wirtz update | OneFootball

Arne Slot hailed the improvement at set pieces from his Liverpool side after beating West Ham 5-2 at Anfield.

Goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and an Axel Disasi own goal secured a dominant win for Liverpool.

And Slot says his side’s improvement in defending and attacking set-pieces has been a big factor in their upturn in form.

“It’s very pleasing. First of all, because that’s the reason why we won,” he said.

“Second of all, because when I was just standing around your colleagues, people said, well played, well played. And I said, in my opinion, we’ve played better this season. 

“We played okay to good, so we were okay to good, but it wasn’t the best game of the season. We’ve played better when we’ve lost. We’ve played better when we conceded set pieces. 

“But as I always said, things went back to normal. We created quite a lot of chances from set pieces in the first part of the season and almost every set piece we conceded went in.

“And today you could see exactly the opposite happening.”

Liverpool were again without Florian Wirtz due to a back injury, and Slot says he is not expected to be back for Tuesday’s game against Wolves.

“I think that will be too early, but I said last week I didn’t expect him not to be available for today, so sometimes with an injury, things can develop in a positive way or a negative way,” Slot explained.

“Now we are thinking it doesn’t have to take too long, but Tuesday will probably be too early. 

“The week after will be tight, as things stand now. But as I said, I thought he would be available for today as well, which didn’t happen, unfortunately.”