Liverpool's Chronic Lack Of Goals
I reviewed the stats from Liverpool's disappointing 2-0 defeat at Leicester City, and I noticed that the Reds' two shots on target were by Emre Can and Dejan Lovren.
Leaving aside the damning indictment that this fact makes on the performance of Liverpool's forward players in this match, my immediate thought was "no wonder we didn't score, those two only have one league goal between them".
The problem for Jürgen Klopp is that these two are far from an isolated case.
The following table shows Liverpool's ten starting outfielders from the Leicester match, and how often they have played and scored in the Premier League for the Reds.
It makes for pretty grisly reading. 667 combined appearances, and just 38 goals to show for them. Take out the penalties and it drops to 36, and a goal every nineteen games (or a half season, in other words). Jordan Henderson has half of the goals, and even he only scores once every eight games on average. Five of the players have one-or-less, and Tim Howard has one league goal for Everton!
Obviously the Reds are missing some key players at the moment, and the likes of Roberto Firmino has a pretty decent average to show for his short career in England, but is it any wonder that Liverpool have scored one fewer league goal than Mahrez and Vardy combined have this season when they’re putting players with records like this on the pitch together?
Plenty for Klopp to ponder at the moment.
Data taken from the indispensable LFCHistory.net. Please follow me on Twitter or Facebook for blog updates. Scroll down to see the related posts for this article. Thanks.