The Midweek Maxi #30: Crucial Comeback Win, Captain Marvellous & Poetry in Motion

Our new Liverpool FC weekly compendium: News. Stats. Views. Debate. Links. Data. Insights. Delights.

To read about why we’ve replaced Free Friday with The Midweek Maxi, see the intro to the first edition.

So far the bumper weekly roundup is going down extremely well with paying subscribers:

This week:

• Excerpts and links to the different pieces we've published across the TTT Substack network, prior to the paywall kicking in;

• Then, some of the best comments from the site this past week;

• Next, Daniel Zambartas’ bumper LFC News, Media & Transfer Round-Up

Job done! (Oh, and it’s also a discussion thread for the issues raised.)

Note: the Maxi may exceed the email size limit on Substack, but the whole piece can be read online by paying subscribers.

TTT Network Roundup

Links and excerpts to articles on the various TTT sites, which are run by different people and require separate subscriptions to this, the TTT Main Hub.

The Main Hub

With two important games on Sunday and Wednesday evening, TTT has been packed with comments and analysis this past seven days. The main article though, published yesterday, was this analysis of the Reds’ potential to win the league…

How Liverpool Can Beat Man City and Arsenal to the Title

Look at Haaland’s off the ball work and compare: Cody Gakpo ranks top at 99th percentile for tackles from forwards; just like Roberto Firmino used to. Gabriel Jesus also ranks 99th percentile at Arsenal. No strikers do more work.

Haaland ranks way down in the 2nd percentile, with basically one tackle every 11 games. In other words, 98% of strikers work harder than he does for their team, if tackling is used as a metric. (And he’s poor in all the other defensive metrics too.)

Darwin Núñez is 64th percentile, and on blocks, 70th percentile; Haaland is not above 29th percentile on any of the defensive side of things.

Haaland is clearly a far better finisher than Núñez, Gakpo, Firmino and Jesus, but it’s interesting to see how little he actually does off the ball.

Now, you may not want Haaland wasting his energy tackling, but City’s regular 90-to-100-point tallies have fallen down to 85 since the start of last season (89 last season, and currently 30, or pro-rata 76, from 15 games). They seem easier to play against.

Again, you’ve gained the best finisher in world football, but at the expense of dominating games (and in fairness, they obviously won the treble last season, but unlike Liverpool when reaching the 2019 and 2022 Champions League finals, they did not get into the 90-point zone in the league.)

City Weaker

As I noted before the Spurs game, City aren’t even doing half as well against strong opposition this season compared to last.

They’ve now played eight games against ‘Big Six Plus Newcastle’ clubs in all competitions; taking 1.5ppg in the league and just 1.25ppg if you add the cups with a points system, given that they lost to Newcastle.

(And that’s not including Aston Villa, who have emerged as a top team in 2023. That would make the City ppg even worse.)

Last season City took 2.08ppg from such games, and if you add cup games against the elite sides, it rises to 2.35ppg, with all five won.

Or, 12 of 17 of those games won (71%), compared to two of eight so far, or 25%.

Liverpool vs. Fulham: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

When the visitors went 3-2 up with 10 minutes to go, a pre-match nugget of trivia from Stats Zone came to mind. “Liverpool have conceded just three goals in the second half of Premier League games this season, failing to win any of the three times they’ve shipped after half-time (D2 L1). Meanwhile, eight of Fulham’s last nine Premier League goals have come in the second half.”

We can’t say we weren’t warned. It was impossible to see a way back from Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s goal after a poor performance from the Reds, and the quality of the first two Liverpool goals shouldn’t overshadow that fact.

It took them 54 minutes (in the first half) to have an open play shot in the box, after all, when Fulham seemed to threaten every time they went forward. That wasn’t that often, granted, but by full time they had taken three shots inside the Liverpool six-yard box – scoring them all – and the Reds had only allowed five in league and Europe this season at Anfield prior to today.

Perhaps this assessment of the performance is a little harsh. Liverpool did have four big chances, with Darwin Núñez doing his usual trick of spurning them when Mohamed Salah has delivered creatively. For much of the game, it felt like Fulham’s game plan worked pretty perfectly though.

Wataru Endō and Trent Alexander-Arnold had other ideas. Jürgen Klopp’s best Liverpool sides weren’t great week after week without fail but they were almost always resilient. In a strange way, today recalled the big trophy winning sides of recent times more than perhaps it should have.

Sheffield United vs. Liverpool: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

Mo Salah started the game in “200th goal seeking mode”, and again I think that set a bad tone for the game; but then he started passing the ball, and his superb volley from a corner was the closest the Reds came to a second goal before injury time.

Darwin Núñez came on, got booked, had a one-on-one saved (another big chance missed), and then made a terrible decision to ruin a late attack, before sliding to win the ball back and hitting a lovely pass to Dominik Szoboszlai, to tuck home the second at the end, and take the team’s midfield goals into double-figures for the season.

The new midfield looked ragged at times, with Szoboszlai perhaps wilting a bit after constant games in this brutal league, even with his insane stamina; but he perked up at the end of this one having been wound up by their constant fouling.

Mac Allister took two really nasty blows, and Wataru Endo was close to a red card for his late tackle; Simon Hooper had already red-carded two Liverpool players this season.

Endo’s tackling so far is a big disappointment. His passing and goals return is impressing me more than expected; but he’s frequently a fraction of a second late, as if still in Bundesliga mode. But it’s rarely bad to have players like him in the squad, and this was a half-rotation special, midweek in a mad December.

The game was littered with sloppy moments by Liverpool, but overall they still managed to control the game to an almost-perfect level (as the home team had little to offer even when they were gifted the ball), but at 1-0 it remained edgy.

As in 2019/20, you just have to battle some games out, especially away. You endure them, you forget them, but the league table keeps the score.

With just 14 goals conceded in a season of record top-level scoring, the Reds, who at the weekend were labelled as too weak defensively to win the title, equalled Arsenal for fewest conceded, and Newcastle play tomorrow at Everton.

Indeed, the back four deserves the most praise tonight, despite both Joe Gomez and Ibrahima Konaté playing themselves into trouble.

At the heart of it, van Dijk is becoming even more of a leader, and looks back to his very best in general play. The goal was just the icing on the cake, but the whole season could be like switching back to 2019/20 mode.

The Zen Den

You can argue if Alexander-Arnold is a full-back or a midfielder, but it doesn't matter what position he plays when taking free-kicks.

He's not had the best luck with them since his earlier days, and this one was unlucky to be given as an own goal, albeit the ball was bouncing down off the bar and unless it was set to hit the ground and spin back in, it was not going to be a goal without it hitting the keeper's back. Still, it was a millimetre away from skimming in directly.

He was a genuine no.6 when he scored the winner, having scored the vital equaliser late on at City last week.

He's 25 now, and that was the age when Steven Gerrard went in to Goal Beast mode, but in his case, by being pushed further forward, to a very attacking midfield role, or even a second-striker role. But Trent is starting to get a bit of that swagger.

The two goals credited to him were exactly where I wanted midfielders shooting from, albeit the free-kick was also in a position to be hit, with the time and the angle to do so. Alexis Mac Allister's shot was from a less-wise distance, but he caught it so well.

Dominik Szoboszlai is using his absolute hammer of a shot best from 20-22 yards, and while a striker or a winger, Cody Gakpo has spent quite a lot of this season in midfield, and his shot that eventually led to the 4th goal was from an acceptable range, with his power-shooting a big asset of his game. (Darwin Núñez can hit with power too but tends to do so from closer in.)

If anything, Wataru Endo perhaps hit the perfect shot from the perfect distance, when the ball sat in just the right way for nothing other than a shot; I just didn't expect him to be the one hitting it. But he did get five and four league goals respectively in his final two seasons in Germany, and his two for Liverpool have been from open play.

That's now nine goals for the midfielders this season, with Ryan Gravenberch also bagging a pair so far.

A reasonable amount of these goals have come in the Europa League, but it's still a tougher competition than playing Exeter or Stockport in the League Cup.

Last season Elliott got five, but mostly in the cups (albeit two in the Champions League and two against Premier League teams in the FA Cup) and often as a winger; and Alexander-Arnold bagged four. One came after his move to the quasi-6 role.

Elliott is someone I feel is maturing towards goalscoring, but for Liverpool, still tends to take an extra touch, and tries too much to only shoot with his left foot.

Curtis Jones bagged three from midfield, two arriving late at the back post. Like Elliott, he can curl with power from distance too, but it’s not yet at the unstoppable level.

Of those, only Jones was a proper midfielder (albeit he used to be a winger but rarely plays there now). Fabio Carvalho also got three, but was playing in the front line. Stefan Bajcetic bagged one away at Villa.

Midfield Goal Threat Takes Liverpool To New Level

No goals were scored by Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, James Milner or Thiago Alcantara. Normally, two of those might only have scored from penalties anyway.

So, that's nine already compared to perhaps eight all of last season, if you discount goals scored when playing in the front three.

What I like about Szoboszlai is that he is a proper distance shooter; a specialist. Too many players take potshots, but even Mac Allister has a controlled strike from distance that I identified in the summer.

But the power Szoboszlai generates makes it genuinely an option to take with multiple payoff possibilities.

I make those scoring directly; scoring with a deflection; scoring via a parried save; winning a corner via a deflection; winning a penalty via a handball; and if you think about it, there will also be plenty of possession retained if the shot is blocked by a particularly packed defence, and it’s a lottery as to where it falls. You’ll get it back plenty of times, if you react first or get lucky. Then, the opposition may be less-well set, and you can take advantage in the second phase.

Dynasty

Those of you with a sharp eye for detail may have noticed that this series magically leapt from Part 17 to Part 19, due to your editor’s brainfart!

So here, belatedly, is the missing Part 18! Sorry …

As the Brendan Rodgers era got underway, one magical season and one magical team emerged ... before it ended in heartbreak.

Originally written by TTT Subscriber Anthony Stanley, this major series was first serialised on The Tomkins Times and then published by TTT as a book, called A BANQUET WITHOUT WINE - A Quarter-Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era.

Covering the period from the onset of the Premier League in 1992 to Klopp’s arrival in 2017, the book is available from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Banquet-Without-Wine-Quarter-Century-Liverpool/dp/1521850674. It remains a definitive matter of record of Liverpool FC during the period in question.

Part 18 - A Quarter of a Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era, 1992-2017

Looking back, it’s easy to wonder what could have been had the Reds secured even one of their top transfer targets during the summer of 2013. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Willian and Diego Costa were all pursued by Rodgers but in the end the Reds’ boss had to settle for Luis Alberto, Iago Aspas and Victor Moses (the latter on loan from Chelsea). Could one of the former trio have made a difference as the roaring flames of the 2013/14 post-Christmas form became less brilliant and deafening as the spring became summer. A lack of squad rotation and Rodgers’ distrust of anyone outside of a cadre of around thirteen players, have all been mooted as possible reasons for Liverpool’s thrilling challenge eventually fading. But then would a Willian or Mkhitaryan (Costa was almost surely never a realistic prospect as he angled for one final release clause caveated contract from Atlético Madrid) have held back the exhilarating and electrifying development of Raheem Sterling who, from November onwards, was one of the finest young players in Europe? We will never know the answer but the chemistry that was gradually built by Rodgers, the breathtaking interaction between the forward line as side after side toppled and were utterly vanquished, quite probably would not have fermented so well if one of the aforementioned trio had signed.

But, again, this is bordering on the forensic. Screw that.

The campaign that would develop into a mass, collective deluge of singing from the stands, of ‘We are Liverpool’ cascading throughout Anfield as goals and goals and more goals were witnessed with feverish joy, began – not with a bang – but with a series of relatively formulaic (but highly encouraging) draws. But is it memory playing tricks on me as I peer back in my mind? Is it viewing the beginning of the season through a prism of Red optimism that was to later unfurl if I claim on August 17^th, when new goalkeeper Simon Mignolet dived to his right to keep out Jonathan Walters’ last minute penalty and deny Stoke City a share of the spoils, that there was a faint stirring of nascent belief? Belief that we may be on the cusp of something special, that Liverpool were quite possibly in the midst of the planets aligning themselves perfectly in our favour (let’s not mention storms; even if they are of the ‘perfect variety’. The very phrase irks at this stage).