It was plain for all to see that Everton’s display against Liverpool was far inferior to their previous performance against Arsenal but just what did the Blues do differently at Anfield than when they’d beaten the Premier League leaders just nine days earlier?
While Evertonians go with hope rather than expectation when crossing Stanley Park, a first victory since October 22 in new manager Sean Dyche’s first game in charge had at least offered the tantalising possibility that the Blues might have increased their chances against the neighbours but in the end, Jurgen Klopp’s side – who hadn’t picked up three points themselves since the turn of the year – ended up strolling to a routine win. An examination of Everton’s statistics from the game using Comparisonator’s MyTeam2MyTeam tool shows just how Dyche’s team’s display against Liverpool contrasted to how they’d played against Arsenal.
Looking at their offensive parameters, Everton’s number of shots went down from 12 to five and whereas they had five shots on target against Arsenal, they had just one against Liverpool. Their attacking actions reduced from 43 to 35 and successful attacking actions went down from 16 to 10 so even though there were more dribbles (22 to 15) and successful dribbles (seven to six), their expected goals dropped from 1.06 to 0.22.
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Although the Blues were unsurprisingly busier in defence, making slightly more interceptions (59 to 58) and ball recoveries (55 to 50) against Liverpool compared to Arsenal, they didn’t actually defend as well. This is shown by them increasing their number of defensive actions (171 to 152) but having fewer successful defensive actions (119 to 123).
They also failed to retain possession as well with increases in ball losses (77 to 65), ball losses in their own half (18 to 13) and ball losses in their own half that led to a shot within 20 seconds (9 to 3). All this resulted in the expected shots against them going up from 1.11 to 2.1.
Even though Everton made more passes against Liverpool than Arsenal (430 to 300) and more successful passes (362 to 229), they were not doing as much with it or penetrating into the danger areas. There were reductions in key passes (4 to 1); successful key passes (3 to 1); long passes (49 to 39); successful long passes (33 to 22); passes to the final third (138 to 107); successful passes to the final third (92 to 73); crosses (16 to 8) and successful crosses (5 to 2).
Overall, it was clear to see that the levels of Everton’s players decreased at Anfield in all areas of the field and an examination of the respective heats maps from Dyche’s first two fixtures also shows how they were kept on the back foot against Liverpool. After enjoying a ‘new manager bounce’ against Arsenal, being brought back down to earth on Monday night will no doubt give the Blues boss plenty of food for thought to ponder ahead of Saturday’s crucial home fixture against Leeds United as he looks to steer his side out of the relegation zone.
Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.
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