Liverpool concluded their run of four consecutive away games with a goalless draw at Chelsea on Tuesday evening. As the previous three had all been lost, Jurgen Klopp viewed it as a step in the right direction.
“I saw a really good attitude from my team tonight and that’s what I wanted to see. This is the basis for the rest of the season,” he said after the match. But while the Reds kept a rare clean sheet away from home – just their fourth in the league this season – they offered very little in attack.
Per FBRef, Liverpool amassed just 0.3 expected goals at Chelsea, their joint-lowest total in the league or Europe this season. Unfortunately, it was tied with the previous match, their 4-1 loss at Manchester City. As the Reds have just played Champions League quarter-finalists on the road for three games in a row, it’s important not to criticise their efforts too harshly. There is one aspect of the matches which is of serious concern though.
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While Liverpool have had an issue with conceding early goals in 2022/23, it has been less of a problem in the last two months. But one constant for Klopp this term has been resolving one difficulty, only to see another appear.
The Reds trailed at the break in seven of their first 12 games of the campaign, though it has only occurred three times since. In the last three games, his side have gone in at the half time interval on level terms.
However, in each of those matches Liverpool only had a single shot of negligible value in the second half. At Real Madrid, the Reds didn’t have an effort between the 37th and 83rd minutes, with a Harvey Elliott shot from 27 yards coming late on. Cody Gakpo then had a blocked effort in the 55th minute at the Etihad, before Darwin Núñez had a long range shot at Stamford Bridge with half an hour of the match remaining. That equals 135 minutes played in total for three attempts at goal, just one in the box and a paltry 0.10 expected goals produced.
It was only a month ago that Liverpool scored six times in the final 43 minutes of their 7-0 win over Manchester United. Disregard that extreme(ly enjoyable) example and the Reds have netted just five second half goals in their last 18 league matches.
Include it, and Liverpool can still point to just one goal after the interval which materially altered a result in the last half season, with Virgil van Dijk’s strike against Wolves (before Mohamed Salah added a second) turning a draw in their favour. Granted, they haven’t always needed to score after the break having done the damage in the opening 45 minutes, but by failing to win 10 of their last 19 league matches, clearly they needed further goals half the time.
As almost all substitutions take place in the second half of a game, this lack of impact reflects poorly on Klopp and his coaching staff. Against both City and Chelsea, Liverpool brought on two fresh forwards from the bench (as well as making other personnel changes) and failed to generate a single attempt at goal following the substitutions on either occasion.
It hasn’t always been this way. Since 2016/17, Klopp has provided 85 Premier League goal contributions from the bench, four more than Pep Guardiola. Among the 16 men with at least 114 games (three full seasons) in that period, Antonio Conte is the only manager who has seen goals and assists from the bench more frequently on a pro-rata basis.
But it’s a severe problem now. With 10 league games to go, Liverpool have bagged half as many second half goals as they accumulated in their 38 matches last term. Markedly reducing the gap is essential if they are to maintain their slender top four hopes for as long as possible.
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