5 stats to give Liverpool hope in the Premier League
By David Gate
While it has not been the start to the Premier League season that Liverpool fans would have wanted there are still some stats to give Reds real hope.
You will not find a single Liverpool fan who is happy being 16 points behind the league leaders after 10 games. The huge defeats to rivals – Man City 5-0 & Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 – have made our start to the 2017/18 Premier League season feel that much worse.
The hope before the season is that we would build on last season’s fourth place finish and press on to something resembling a title challenge. The form of Man City coupled with Liverpool’s failure to improve the defense in the transfer window has made that a fanciful dream. It will be 29 years without a league title.
That disappointment has led to lots of criticism at the club. The defensive errors of Dejan Lovren and Simon Mignolet are a chronic. The improvement to Alberto Moreno has been negated by Joel Matip regressing.
Each of our regular central midfielders has been called into question. Jordan Henderson is always one poor pass away from a Twitter meltdown. Gini Wijnaldum only looks good at Anfield. Emre Can has not signed a new contract and looks like he is playing out his time at the club before a big move next year.
While the Reds have lots of exceptional talent amongst our forwards they have not lit the world on fire as we expected. Injuries, suspensions and transfer hold-outs have robbed us of our best forward lines being available. There has also been plenty of wastefulness too.
You could easily feel depressed or resigned to another average season. However if you look at some of the data there are some real signs for hope. There are a handful of stats that will really surprise you.
Here are 5 stats that will get you hopeful for the rest of Liverpool’s Premier League season: