Liverpool’s pressing has been roundly and rightly criticised this season, but the condemnation has almost entirely focussed upon the defensive aspect of closing down opponents. The effectiveness has also lessened from an attacking standpoint, though, rendering Jurgen Klopp’s ‘favourite playmaker’ far less potent.
Opta have a metric called high turnovers, which is when a team wins the ball to start a possession sequence within 40m of the opposition goal. In the 2020/21 Premier League, the Reds generated 67 shots from them, 1.76 per game and the second most in the division.
They then rose to the stop of the standings last season with 1.87 per match, yet prior to their 0-0 draw with Chelsea, Liverpool had recorded 18 in their 18 matches in 2022/23, one of the lowest totals in the top flight. By these standards, their efforts against Graham Potter’s side were a significant step in the right direction.
