The Underlying Numbers That Show Liverpool Are Top On Merit

Staying there may not be easy, but the Reds have the best all-round stats

It’s not just xG, but various metrics for the team and for individuals where Liverpool and their players rank top.

I make it nine Liverpool players who are ranked 1st or 2nd on a specific key metric, and some, like Mo Salah, rank top or near top in several different categories.

That said, some of the other Reds are more surprising. For instance, Diogo Jota in terms of impact.

The team lead umpteen* metrics, and that’s excluding some absolutely thumping cup wins. To me, the cups are more of a bonus than ever, and the league is the key thing now that it’s being led.

* technical term

Other clubs and players lead different metrics too, but I can’t see as many.

(Data correct up to the Reds’ winter break, albeit half the teams played their 20th or 21st game.)

For Man City, for example, Rodri and Erling Haaland stand out, but they then seem more reliant on those in certain ways (albeit they seem to play better football without Haaland).

And whereas they used to lead the possession they did so by a bigger margin, and they also used to lead the pressing figures as a team, and now they’re mid-ranking. They’ve been markedly less-good against better teams than last season, albeit the return of Kevin de Bruyne helped them against a tiring Newcastle who, though generally outplayed, were cutting City apart on the break until they ran out of energy.

City may be favourites, despite trailing the Reds by two points, but I’ll go into more detail this coming week about how much harder City’s February-April period is, and much tougher than some of the winning runs they’ve gone on in the past.

(Liverpool currently have TEN players missing, so at least half of those returning will help too, even if two of the ten could be out for the season.)

Weirdly, Arsenal seem to have very few standout stats, beyond a low expected goals against figure. They also have fewer standout players than Liverpool and Man City. Aston Villa have even fewer standout players and stats, albeit catching teams offside is their superpower.

Underlying numbers don’t guarantee future outcomes, as they can change and fluctuate as much as results, but consistently good underlying numbers can show true quality.

Looking at creativity, impact, pressing, speed, passing, shooting, defensive attributes, as individuals and as a team, Liverpool are title contenders for a series of very good reasons (and have done so without three or four first XI players for most of the season).

Plus, as something I will return to, Liverpool have got a lot of their toughest away games out of the way, and of the 20 games played, they’ve played the other 19 clubs plus Newcastle (a Champions League club this season) a second time.

Man City have now gone to St James’ Park too, but haven’t been to Anfield, obviously.

This article is for paying TTT Main Hub subscribers only.