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17 stats we can’t believe that sum up Liverpool’s 2022-23 struggles

Liverpool have endured a difficult start to the 2022-23 season – so much so that can’t quite work out just what has gone so badly wrong at Anfield.

It only seems like yesterday that the Reds were in pursuit of an unprecedented quadruple with some of Europe’s best performers strutting their stuff on a weekly basis.

But last season ultimately ended in disappointment. Despite winning both domestic cups, Liverpool lost the league to Manchester City on the final day before suffering defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Paris.

Reinforcements arrived at Anfield over the summer; Darwin Nunez joined from Benfica alongside Fabio Carvalho, Calvin Ramsay and Arthur Melo as Liverpool looked to go one better in the Premier League and Champions League.

But the loss of Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich was seemingly bigger than anybody had anticipated. Liverpool have won just twice in the Premier League with a number of key performers failing to live up to their high standards.

And, despite two victories in the Champions League, Jurgen Klopp’s side suffered a chastening 4-1 defeat against Napoli in their opening group game.

Following their 3-2 defeat at Arsenal, Klopp conceded that his side are already out of the title race. Speaking to the press, the Liverpool boss said: “Yeah, [we’re] not in the title race. Imagine if I would sit here and think we are nearly there.

“Of course, in a situation like ours, we play Arsenal, now we play Rangers obviously and then we play Man City, is that the perfect opponent for finding confidence back? Probably not!

Arsenal's Ben White and William Saliba celebrate at the final whistle after the Premier League match between Arsenal and Liverpool at Emirates Stadium, London, October 2022.

READ: 13 spine-tingling stats from Arsenal’s statement victory over Liverpool

 

“If you are winning, there are five million things we could talk about, ‘He’s great, he’s great and he’s super, and the goals were outstanding.’

“Losing is always the same, the conversations are a bit rustier. I cannot change that, I couldn’t be bothered about it, to be honest. But what you build with your hand you knock down with your backside, that’s not helpful and that’s what we did.”

Stats we can’t believe

We’ve identified 17 stats we just can’t quite believe about this Liverpool side.

– With 10 points from eight games so far, this is Liverpool’s worst return at this stage of a Premier League campaign since 2012-13 (9 points), when they ultimately finished seventh.

– For a point of comparison, Liverpool achieved 17 points (2020-21) and 18 points (2021-22) in their first eight games of the previous two campaigns.

– In Liverpool’s last 12 matches, they’ve conceded 16 goals. They conceded three in their 12 previous games.

– Conceding the first goal has become an increasingly pertinent problem for Klopp’s Reds. They’ve fallen behind in 10 of their last 12 matches (83.3%) as opposed to just twice in the 12 games previous to this.

– Liverpool’s success over recent years has been built on a water-tight defence, but they’ve only kept two clean sheets in their previous 12 matches compared to 10 in the dozen preceding games.

– Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal was their first reverse against the Gunners in nine matches. Liverpool often got the better of Arsenal during the peak Klopp years and this result has been spun as a changing of the Premier League guard.

– The Reds trailed at half-time at the Emirates thanks to goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. If matches ended after 45 minutes, Liverpool would currently be bottom of the Premier League with just four points to their name.

– Arsenal had 46 touches in Liverpool’s box on Sunday – more than they had in the previous five Premier League meetings combined (44)

– Liverpool have only allowed their opponents more touches in their box in one previous PL game under Klopp – 48 against Manchester City in November 2019.

– Granit Xhaka has scored as many goals (2) and registered as many assists (3) as Mohamed Salah in the Premier League this season.

– And Salah has scored just six league goals from open play since returning from the African Cup of Nations in February.

– Before he went to the AFCON last season, Salah averaged 3.9 shots per game. This season he is averaging 2.9, a major drop-off that needs rectifying if Liverpool are to reach the heights of last season.

– Since beating Bournemouth 9-0 on August 27, Liverpool’s joint record victory, they’ve earned only five Premier League points whereas Bournemouth have gained nine over the same period.

– The form of Trent Alexander-Arnold has come under heavy scrutiny this season. After being substituted at half-time at Arsenal, Alexander-Arnold’s average match rating of The Liverpool Echo, the i, WhoScored, FotMob and This Is Anfield readers was a measly 4.6 out of 10.

– Virgil van Dijk received a rating of 5.4 after another lethargic showing. Ian Doyle of The Liverpool Echo wrote the Dutchman was “conspicuously absent” for Saka’s first goal.

– In the past two seasons, Van Dijk has only had to make 0.5 and 0.6 tackles per game but already this season has made 0.9 tackles in each game.

– Similarly, he was only made to make 1 and 0.9 interceptions per game in the 2020-21 and 21-22 seasons, respectively, but is already at 1.4 in the current campaign. Liverpool badly need his form to improve.


READ MORE: The Premier League table since Jurgen Klopp took over at Liverpool