There was a period when it didn’t matter who scored the first goal in a Liverpool game. The team were known as “mentality monsters” and kept fighting.

Confidence in the game seems to have disappeared for the Reds, and statistics from Michael Reid at Opta shows how important the first goal in the game really is.

He reports that Liverpool have won all of the last 18 Premier League games in which they have scored the first goal. In the match, 48 goals were scored from chances which equals 43.7 in xG.

In the last 18 games in which Liverpool have not scored a first goal, only six have been won, and the team have scored 28 goals from chances which equals 33.8 in xG. He believes that it shows how teams perform under pressure when they have to chase games.

– The attacks are not a problem

Liverpool’s form naturally becomes a big topic of discussion after the things that happened in the last few weeks. Sporting Life has reviewed what went wrong – and pinpointed the underlying numbers.

Jürgen Klopp’s team are ninth in the Premier League, and ten points behind the top four after the weekend defeat against Brighton. According to the website, Liverpool are actually the team that creates the most chances – even more than Manchester City as measured in xG per game. They further report that this team’s xG numbers are second best in terms of creating the team chances that Klopp had at Anfield.

But defensively, the numbers are scary, and by the number of goals expected against (xGA) they are numbers to compare with the teams who have been relegated in the last seven seasons. In fact, xGA numbers are worse.

Fortunately, the Reds have the best goalkeeper in the world, and the numbers show how well he is performing.