6 Comments
6 hrs agoLiked by Andrew Beasley

This is why I detest the "not dribbled past" assessment that's shown up everywhere from Reddit to Squawka in recent years. It means nothing. People started attaching it to Virg when he first joined the club as some kind of assertion of his defensive dominance but it's not as if he's standing in place like an immovable object. Most of the time, he's guiding attackers away from the box in the same way Trent (who, y'know, can't defend) did to Mitoma. It's a fake "stat."

Expand full comment
17 hrs agoLiked by Andrew Beasley

Points per game multiplied by opponents' points per game. Great metric and finally I can appreciate just how good we've been! Up the reds!

Expand full comment
author
17 hrs ago·edited 17 hrs agoAuthor

Yeah, if you've not clicked the link in the article, it's worth a look:

https://www.soccerstats.com/table.asp?league=england&tid=rp

Considering Liverpool's supposedly easy start, they've had it harder than the two teams directly behind them in the table.

Expand full comment
16 hrs agoLiked by Andrew Beasley

Yeah, I had a nose and it definitely gave me some relief.

I wonder if owners use this kind of metric when assessing managerial changes. For example, at the other end of the table, Gary O'Neill could point to this statistic and argue that he has hard lines (and only just lost to Liverpool and City).

Also, it's fun to use this metric to look at the level of opponents in the next 6 games, in the context that the PPG changes on a game-by-game basis of course, and home, away, level of rivalry, etc... it's not accounted for. Good ball park figure though. 1.37 for our next 6, so increasing in difficulty...

Expand full comment
author

Re O'Neil - I think Liverpool's owners would look at that kind of thing but history suggests plenty of others at other clubs don't!

Expand full comment

Apologies in advance for being off topic. Agree with the sentiments around dribble past stats and how vendors are defining some of these for their own simplicity’s sake rather than making football sense. To move on, I’d like to mention a shot statistic from this game. I had the most shots ever from a drinking game whereby you consume some Vodka after Trent carelessly shanks a ball into the centre of the field and exposes us to a counter! I like the fact that he ‘just goes for it’ when attempting those passes, but if it’s not working, maybe simplify until you get your concentration back! Does anyone know what his forward pass completion was for this game?

Expand full comment