{"id":343193,"date":"2025-12-30T17:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/343193\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T17:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T17:42:09","slug":"how-liverpool-missed-out-on-no-1-set-piece-coach-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/343193\/","title":{"rendered":"How Liverpool Missed Out on No. 1 Set-Piece Coach Target"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Briggs has left Liverpool following just four months in his official capacity as set-piece coach, and he only got the job after a move for Etienne Reijnen fell through.<\/p>\n

Back in May 2024, it emerged that Liverpool were seeking to follow the likes of Arsenal<\/a>, Aston Villa<\/a> and Chelsea<\/a> in appointing their own specialist set-piece coach.<\/p>\n

A job advert was posted on the club\u2019s official channels as well as LinkedIn, only for their search to be paused in September, with first-team development coach Aaron Briggs filling the role and eventually taking on the job officially in September 2025.<\/p>\n

He has now been dismissed, though, with Liverpool possessing the worst set-piece record in the Premier League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Etienne Reijnen and Liverpool<\/p>\n

\u2022 Reijnen wanted: Arne Slot<\/a> wanted Etienne Reijnen to join him in moving from Feyenoord to Liverpool
\u2022 Work permit issues: Problems securing Reijnen a UK work permit caused the appointment to fall through
\u2022 Replacement: Aaron Briggs was instead appointed as set-piece coach but has now been sacked <\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

Briggs\u2019 appointment came after Liverpool failed to land their priority target in Feyenoord\u2019s Reijnen, who was at one point believed to be close to a move to Merseyside.<\/p>\n

When Liverpool appeared set to land Reijnen, it was unclear exactly which role he would take up on Arne Slot<\/a>\u2018s staff, but it would in fact have involved leading set-pieces.<\/p>\n

Reijnen\u2019s proposed switch fell through due to work permit issues, with the 38-year-old instead remaining in his position as analyst and technical advisor for the Dutch club.<\/p>\n

The club faced no such issue in acquiring a work permit for Slot and support staff such as Sipke Hulshoff<\/a>, Ruben Peeters and Roderick van der Ham, who all moved to Anfield from Feyenoord.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Algemeen Dagblad<\/a> at the end of 2024, the Liverpool head coach highlighted the role of his former colleague, Reijnen.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cEtienne Reijnen is still at Feyenoord and I recently read that Brian Priske (Slot\u2019s successor) was full of praise for him,\u201d Slot said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe set-pieces are a strength at Feyenoord and Reijnen still takes care of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Reijnen still working at Feyenoord under manager Robin van Persie, the Dutch outfit have scored eight non-penalty set-pieces this season; Liverpool have netted just three in the league.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, they have conceded just once from dead-ball situations compared to Liverpool\u2019s 12.<\/p>\n

In the short term, Slot and the rest of his staff are to take over Briggs\u2019 duties, but it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise to see Liverpool once again attempt to sort a move for Reijnen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Briggs has left Liverpool following just four months in his official capacity as set-piece coach, and he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[133080,218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-343193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-etienne-reijnen","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}