Why do Liverpool not score from free kicks – and who should take them now?

New York Times

08-05-2025

Let's start with a quick quiz question.
Aside from Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is the Liverpool player to most recently score from a direct free kick in the Premier League?
I'll give you a clue. It happened in 2017, and was scored by a player who, as Real Madrid target Alexander-Arnold seems set to do this summer, left Anfield for Spain.
We'll give you the answer at the end of the article, but the fact that it has been over seven years since anyone in a Liverpool shirt apart from Alexander-Arnold had success from a dead-ball points not only to the right-back's qualities but also the team's over-reliance on him.
Ever since an 18-year-old Alexander-Arnold scored against Germany's Hoffenheim on his European debut in an August 2017 Champions League qualifier, the responsibility has stayed with him despite interest from Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, whom he would regularly take on in free-kick shooting competitions after training.
Alexander-Arnold worked tirelessly on his set-piece technique and tried to make himself versatile at shooting from different distances and angles. His six goals from free kicks in the Premier League (eight in all competitions) — the last of which arrived in a 3-1 away win against Fulham on April 21 last year — set a standard none of his team-mates could match.
Since he made his debut in December 2016, Liverpool rank fourth in the Premier League for goals scored from direct free kicks with 11, behind Southampton (both 17), Manchester City (15) and Chelsea (12), yet only two players — Alexander-Arnold being one of them — have contributed to that total.
Now, with the 26-year-old leaving at the end of the campaign when his contract expires and set to complete a move to Madrid, there is an opportunity for a new free-kick taker to step up and be counted. The question is who?
Since 2016, plenty of other Liverpool players have tried to make an impact from free kicks but all have come up short, with Salah surprisingly the most wasteful. The Egyptian, now up to fifth on the Premier League era's scoring chart with 185, has never netted a free kick for Liverpool and is on an unfortunate run of 17 unsuccessful strikes at goal from them in the top flight.
In more recent times, Salah has typically stepped aside to allow others to have a go. This season, he has only attempted one direct shot in a dead-ball situation, against Manchester United in January. Last season was the same (his sole try came against Nottingham Forest in the October), and both were nowhere near ending up in the goal. For a player who is such a creative force and strikes the ball so cleanly in open play, it's unusual that Salah has only scored from direct free kicks for his country, in games against Ghana (2017) and Uganda (2019).
That hasn't stopped Liverpool using him to distract and deceive opponents when free kicks are won, however.
For years, Salah has helped change the angle to the target for the free-kick taker by rolling his studs over the ball in advance of a shot. Here's Alexander-Arnold scoring at Chelsea in September 2019 following that specific movement:
Even if Salah rarely ends up shooting in a free-kick situation himself, he also remains a key part around the build-up, as seen in last week's 2-1 defeat against Chelsea, where he stood over the ball and made as if to shoot before letting Harvey Elliott have a crack that didn't trouble the hosts' back line.
In terms of other contenders, Dominik Szoboszlai (10 direct free-kick shots without scoring for Liverpool) is rapidly catching up with Salah, despite having a better record from dead balls at international level with Hungary. Alexis Mac Allister (three attempts) is perhaps best placed to take over from Alexander-Arnold, as his shooting technique is well polished and a couple of his free kicks have already struck the woodwork. For Elliott (also three), his chances of earning the role depend on his future and whether he is prepared to accept another season of not being a first-choice player.
Van Dijk (five) has not attempted a shot from a direct free kick since the 3-1 home win against Bournemouth in August 2023, when he tried to lob the goalkeeper from the halfway line. The Dutchman's conversion rate used to be better than that of Alexander-Arnold in his earlier years with Liverpool but his threat from set pieces is now largely restricted to trying to head in crosses and corners.
Across the Premier League, fewer goals are being scored directly from free kicks.
With three rounds of games to go, only 12 goals have come from free-kick shots this season, which is likely to yield the second-lowest total since the 1997-98 campaign. The only one with fewer than this was last season, with 11 — a quarter of the overall Premier League tally in 2007-08.
Liverpool are one of 11 teams in the 20-team division yet to score from a direct free kick in 2024-25, while the number of shots they have taken from dead balls is the second lowest since the 2016-17 season. Season DFK shots DFK goals
That lack of goal attempts is likely to correlate to Liverpool not winning a high volume of free kicks in potentially profitable shooting positions. This graphic shows where they have won free kicks in Premier League games this season, with relatively few secured in central areas near the edge of the opposition penalty box.
Liverpool tend to target their attacking-third entries more on the flanks rather than through the centre, using Salah on the right and, usually, Luis Diaz on the left. This means their free kicks are often awarded in wide areas, leading to crosses rather than shots from the ensuing set pieces. A similar trend applies for Arsenal.
Liverpool's output might have been better this season had Alexander-Arnold been available more often.
He has missed four of their 35 league games through injury and has begun another three on the bench. His absence from their team is something Liverpool must now get used to and finding a replacement set-piece specialist will become more important.
Oh, and the answer to the question posed at the start of this article? It was Coutinho, who scored in the 5-1 win against Brighton & Hove Albion in December 2017, just a month before his record £125million ($167m at the current exchange rate) transfer to Barcelona.
(Top photo: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)