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6 defeats in 7 games
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While there are certainly a number of fascinating Premier League games for football fans to get excited about this weekend, many will naturally be drawn to Liverpool’s clash with Aston Villa at Anfield on Saturday night. Ahead of the clash, the English champions have lost their last four league games and on Wednesday they were knocked out of the League Cup by Crystal Palace. Arne Slot, under growing pressure from fans and critics of the club alike, opted to drop the vast majority of his squad in favour of playing players from the club’s youth teams. And had an interesting reaction to Palace’s relatively comfortable win after the match.
"If you look at the week coming up, that is going to be a big week for us, everyone and the club,” said the Dutch tactician to BBC Sport. “We need as many players available as we can. You can see today with the line-up I had to make. I only rested the players that have played mainly in the last week. This is the line-up you get. That shows you we already have a few injuries. With a big week coming up for me, it felt the best choice.” And while Liverpool have certainly made a habit of playing young players in the League Cup in recent years, there’s little doubt that Slot is doing everything in his power to prepare for what is increasingly looking like a must-win game for the Anfield club. So what’s gone so wrong at Liverpool that’s led them to this situation?
A change in fortunes at either end of the pitch
In the summer transfer window Liverpool spent an eye-watering €483 million on new players and €365m of that was spent on forward players Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitiké. And, to no great surprise, much of the reasoning behind the club’s torment on the pitch this season has been put down to the lack of attacking output from the new signings, alongside the diminished form of talisman Mohamed Salah. Alongside the Egyptian forward’s somewhat tepid three goals and two assists in nine Premier League games, the aforementioned newly-signed trio have just five goals and assists between their collective 21 league appearances. But that may not be the real reason behind Liverpool’s dip in form this season.
When we take a look at the club’s attacking and defensive stats in all competitions this season, we can note that Slot’s team are scoring on average 2.0 goals per game. As we can see in the table above, that is a slight drop-off from last season’s average of 2.2 goals scored per game and the joint worst for Liverpool in the last five seasons, but is still a very impressive average that any team in Europe would be proud of. The real issues seem to be coming in defence, where Slot’s side are conceding a remarkable 1.8 goals per game in all competitions. That figure is also the worst average for Liverpool in the last five seasons. And while their attacking numbers have dropped by 9%, the number of goals that they’re conceding per game has risen by a far more concerning 64%.
Of course, football is a team sport and as such these two changing figures are inherently related to one another. Liverpool’s defensive stats have diminished because their attacking line up simply isn’t dominating games like they used to. And when we couple that with a dip in form from the club’s key defensive stalwarts - most notably Ryan Gravenberch in midfield and Virgil Van Dijk in defence - alongside the club’s attempts to replace two key full-backs in Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, it only goes to show that this huge turnover of players in the summer has actually had a far bigger impact in defence than it has done in attack.
Liverpool’s defence doesn’t attack like it once did
Another way to look at Liverpool’s faltering defence is by considering its attacking output. That may seem like an odd way to judge a team’s defensive line, but Liverpool’s success in recent years has often come down to the creative talents of Robertson and Alexander-Arnold on the wings, alongside the aerial threat of Van Dijk in the box. And either through Van Dijk’s dip in form or the failure of Liverpool’s new recruits to adequately replace the aforementioned full-back duo, Slot’s team simply isn’t attacking opposition teams like it once did.
For example, in this season’s Premier League campaign Liverpool’s defenders have amassed just two goals and assists in the team’s opening nine league games. Not only is that the second-worst return among all English top-flight teams, but it also amounts to just 7% of Liverpool’s total attacking output. When we compare that to the last five seasons, we can see that it’s a notable drop-off from last season when Liverpool’s defence provided 13% of the team’s total goals and assists and actually boasted the second-most potent defensive line in terms of goals and assists in the Premier League.
As the graph above clearly illustrates, Liverpool’s reliance on attacking full-backs has been diminishing with more or less every passing season, which makes sense since Robertson was getting older with each passing season and Alexander-Arnold had perhaps seen his head turned by a move to Real Madrid. But the worry here is that Liverpool’s new full-backs simply aren’t up to the task of replacing their predecessors.
On the left, new signing Milos Kerkez has looked defensively suspect and so far provided just one goal and zero assists in nine league starts. And, similarly, on the right side fellow new arrival Jeremie Frimpong has started just one league game, with Slot still preferring to go with youngster Conor Bradley or central midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai at right-back. However, the pair have offered just one goal and one assist from the right-back position in the Premier League thus far. And having failed to sign Marc Guéhi in the summer, Liverpool have no suitable back-up for Van Dijk in defence.
None of this is to say that Liverpool don’t have the tools at their disposal to turn their poor season around. Kerkez, Frimpong and Bradley are all perfectly talented players. But it’s clear that Slot hasn’t yet found a way to nail down the right balance in his team and as a result his team simply isn’t performing properly at either end of the pitch. And unless Slot can find that balance against Villa on Saturday, Liverpool’s troubles on the pitch seem likely to persist.
