Liverpool coach ‘pays price’ for horror start as Reds know Slot’s squad is ‘at least two players light’ | OneFootball

Liverpool set-piece coach Aaron Briggs is set to leave Anfield after the Reds’ terrible first half of the season, according to reports.

The Reds are back in a bit of form with Arne Slot’s side winning their last four matches in all competitions after a rough patch of form over October and November.

Despite three wins in a row in the Premier League, fourth-placed Liverpool have failed to gain any ground on the top three with Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa also winning all three of their last three matches.

Liverpool are still ten points adrift of Premier League leaders Arsenal with one game to go until the halfway stage of the season.

The Reds have been particularly porous in defence this season with only one team, Manchester United, conceding more goals in the top half of the table.

Liverpool have conceded 12 goals from set pieces this term with their set-piece differential standing at -9 for the campaign.

And now The Times insists that set-piece coach Briggs has ‘paid the price for the champions’ continuing frailties and has left the club’ after fewer than four months in the specialist role.

The report adds: ‘Responsibility for set pieces will now rest with Slot and the rest of the coaching staff, including Sipke Hulshoff and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

‘Slot has repeatedly bemoaned Liverpool’s set-piece difference this season, which stands at -9 at present, and claimed that unless there was an improvement his side would not finish in the top four. The league leaders Arsenal boast a set-piece difference of +8.’

Daily Mail journalist Lewis Steele insists that Liverpool are “at least two players light” as he analyses where the Reds need to improve in the January transfer window.

Steele wrote in the Daily Mail: “Considering they spent £450million in the summer, it sounds stupid to say but Liverpool’s squad is at least two players light.

“And it has been further exacerbated by long-term injuries to young defender Giovanni Leoni, signed for £26m from Parma in August, and British-record £125m signing Alexander Isak. The Swede has a broken leg and is set to miss a few months – at the very least, and then it will be a gradual programme of recovery – while Leoni will not be seen again this season after suffering a nasty knee ligament injury on his debut.

“Both of those can be filed under bad luck but it is evident that the Reds need a forward and central defender regardless of these injuries. Arne Slot said a fortnight ago that it is not the Liverpool way to fix problems by going to the transfer market and that is right.

“Alexander Isak’s British-record move has been a complete non-starter so far after his struggles with form and then a brutal broken leg at Tottenham Giovanni Leoni is another summer signing who will not play again for some time after his knee injury on debut

“But even without the Leoni blow, there are issues with the remaining central defenders – Joe Gomez is injury prone, Ibrahima Konate is out of contract in the summer and the other, Virgil van Dijk, is 34 and long-term planning must be in place.

“They also need a forward. Rio Ngumoha, 17, was the reason the club did not go all out for a ready-made Luis Diaz replacement in the summer. But he has hardly played, Federico Chiesa is not trusted and Mohamed Salah’s form has dipped.

“Maybe not for January but a central midfielder should be on the shopping list in the summer.”