Liverpool Women have had a very testing start to their first season back in the WSL. They sit third bottom in the 12-team table after five matches, though seeing their opponents sitting between second and sixth shows the difficulty of schedule Matt Beard’s side have faced.
It wasn’t until their latest game that they finally scored in open play in the league (though they did when winning 4-0 at Leicester in the Continental Cup last month). Katie Stengel scored a pair of penalties in the win over Chelsea, and the American bagged an equaliser in what became a 2-1 loss at Manchester City last Sunday.
With no assist for her goal at City’s Academy Stadium, Stengel had to work incredibly hard to even generate a chance. She did so using Jurgen Klopp’s favourite playmaker, one which has been curiously absent for the men’s team in 2022/23.
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With Manchester City in possession just in front of their penalty area, Mel Lawley pressed one centre-back, who was forced into a pass to the other, Alex Greenwood. She in turn was closed down by Stengel, who won the ball and ran through to score.
Lawley is fifth in the WSL for final third regains per 90 minutes ( per Fotmob ), while only seven women have made more tackles in that zone than Stengel ( per FBRef ). This might have been the first time their efforts led to a goal, but they have been clearly trying to make something of this nature occur.
It was a textbook example of what Opta class as a high turnover: regaining the ball and starting a possession sequence within 40m of the opposition goal. Last season, Liverpool’s men topped the Premier League for this metric, with 443, as well as for those which led to shots (71) and goals (seven, tied with Chelsea).
Klopp memorably once described a good counter-pressing situation as better than any playmaker, and the above figures bear that out to an extent. Only 13 players in the division picked up more than seven assists in 2021/22, after all.
But after approximately a third of this season Liverpool haven’t converted a single high turnover into a goal, something which is only also true for Wolves and Nottingham Forest. It may just be random, in the sense that the Reds’ proportion of regains in the final 40m which have led to shots is identical to last season, and they did produce a pair of goals via this method at Ibrox recently.
But something is off, too. Liverpool’s possession average has shifted by just 0.1 per cent between last season and this, giving them a near identical number of opportunities with which to press and recover the ball. However, where they topped the league for final third regains per match last season, with 7.6, in 2022/23 they are ninth with 4.8 per 90.
Game state will have had some influence on the drop. Klopp’s side have often found themselves chasing results against teams happier than ever to sit deep. The possession might be essentially consistent but the opportunities to press in the final third will have dropped. Per FBRef, where opposing teams averaged 232 touches per match in their defensive third against Liverpool last term, they have dropped to 214 this season.
Nonetheless, the individual figures for regains in the attacking third tell the tale. Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah have both dropped by 0.5 per 90 (to 0.6 and 0.4 respectively) while Darwin Nunez is 0.3 under Sadio Mane’s figure from last season. Amended tactics with different players have played a part, as have injuries and suspensions. Klopp is trying to build the plane while it is flying, as one of his predecessors at Anfield once said.
Hiccups and teething problems are inevitable. But the fact remains that Liverpool Women have so far used the German’s favourite playmaker far better than his own side have. It’s yet another issue which Klopp needs to address post-haste.
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