The struggles that West Ham United forward Valentin Castellanos endured at defending set-pieces have been exposed by pundit Ashley Williams on Match of the Day.

Castellanos actually scored his third goal for the Irons during West Ham’s 5-2 defeat away at Liverpool on Saturday but it was defending that played a bigger part in the game.

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Clearly, the obvious fact that the forward is not a defender does need to be taken into account. Still, that doesn’t mean he’s exempt from criticism after such a poor day on the defensive front at Anfield.

Speaking on Match of the Day, Williams broke down the issues West Ham’s January signing endured in expert fashion.

Ashley Williams explains Taty Castellanos struggles vs Liverpool

Reflecting on the fact the Argentine left Hugo Ekitike unmarked as Liverpool played the ball back in following a half-cleared corner, Williams said: “Keep your eye on Castellanos.

“He’s an attacking player, so naturally he wants to go forward. He’s not realised the danger that this isn’t cleared yet. As he’s on his way out [of the box], Ekitike stands still, and he’s too far off him.”

Of the third goal from a corner, which was scored by Alexis Mac Allister, Williams added: “This is the third one.

“Again, we highlighted Castellanos. He does have a problem because he’s trying to mark Mac Allister and Ekitike. He’s got two people to worry about, he doesn’t manage to deal with any of them.

“He’s caught in between again and Liverpool get the goal. You can see with his arms up in the air, he’s not happy. He’s got too many people to worry about.”

It would, of course, be unwise to lay all of the blame at Castellanos alone.

As a collective, West Ham didn’t deal with Liverpool’s corners well enough – to an almost historically bad degree.

The worst in the Premier League 😡 Of all of the issues set to send us down, where does this one rank?!

Only once before in the history of the Premier League had a team conceded three goals from corners in the first half of a match until the Irons rocked up to Anfield.

Equalling the unwanted record set by Leicester against Manchester United was not down to Castellanos alone, of course.

More work will need to be done to tune his defensive skills up, however, during the final ten games of the season.

How many goals West Ham United have conceded from corners this season

Not a single team in the Premier League has conceded anything close to the number of goals from corners than West Ham have this season (15).

Even without the three they conceded at Anfield, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side would still have been significantly ahead of the second-worst team on that front in the Premier League – Bournemouth with nine.

It’s a systemic issue that has dogged West Ham all season and one that goes far beyond Castellanos.

Castellanos has been criticised at West Ham but he’s not the only reason as to why they’re so weak at defending corners.