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.
