Analysis: Liverpool vs Carlisle
After Liverpool scraped through on penalties against Carlisle United of League Two, I don't expect anyone will want to read this. However, as I collated the info I figured I may as well share it as this game will soon be long forgotten.
On the face of it, Liverpool had more than enough chances to win. The Reds had a total of 47 shots across the two hours, which equates to one every two-and-a-half minutes or so.
That doesn't look that bad, does it? But then how many of them were on target?
Hmm, we're now down to sixteen. One in three on target is in line with league average, so it makes sense in that regard, but now we're down to one 'keeper-testing effort every 7.5 minutes. Look at the list though, quite a few include the phrase 'from outside the box'; how many on target efforts from inside the box did Liverpool have?
Just the seven. In truth, that should still be enough to win a game of football, but the main concern here has to be that there were only two in the final hour of the contest. The Reds have a lot of good players, but they are playing in a team devoid of direction and confidence, which leads to them taking pot shots from distance. Bleak times.
To finish, the individual player shot data. Nobody comes out of it with too much credit, but the combined efforts of Coutinho, Can and Firmino were particularly poor; one shot in the box between them from a total of fifteen attempts.
Onwards and upwards, eh, Brendan?
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