Liverpool FC: 2015/16 Pre-Season Stats Review
Liverpool wrapped up their pre-season campaign with a 2-1 win over Swindon Town on Sunday, which featured a 'debut' goal by Christian Benteke. I thought I'd take a quick look at which Reds have created chances or had a shot most frequently in the last five matches of the summer.
A quick explanation on the table below: If the player doesn’t have a number in a box, it means that they didn’t play in that particular match. The maximum played by any player in these five games was a total of 360 minutes, so I have highlighted the players who had at least 180 minutes of pitch time in light green (though of course this is still a very small sample. I'm sharing this info in case you're interested in it; it doesn't prove anything about how a player will do this season, not least due to the mediocre quality of the teams faced).
It's encouraging to see Milner and Lallana at the top end of the table, as Liverpool will need them to deliver plenty of chances for Benteke and co. this season, plus they'll need to chip in with a few goals each too. Ibe is another player who will no doubt see far more action than last season, and hopefully Markovic will step up after a largely quiet debut campaign at Anfield.
Thanks to this page on Reddit, I'll finish with the list of goals and assists for the 2015/16 pre-season.
The most interesting thing for me here is that no assist-scorer combination got more than one; this will partly be due to the variety of line-ups used, but to get thirteen different link ups in six games (when there were only thirty-one in the whole of last season) is no bad thing.
Of course, this will all be irrelevant if Liverpool don't avenge the 1-6 defeat they suffered in their last competitive game when they face Stoke City next weekend. At least they are in relatively good scoring form though...
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