Liverpool suffered their first defeat of the English Premier League 2021-22 season after going down 2-3 against West Ham United. The Reds missed a chance to close the gap on lead leaders Chelsea and are now four points behind the Blues. Jurgen Klopp has a defensive concern as his team has conceded five goals in the last two games and have just earned one point.
The above viz shows the defensive duels contested by Liverpool vs West Ham United. Against West Ham United, Liverpool players conceded three goals and lost the match. Jurgen Klopp made one defensive change in the match and replaced Ibrahima Konate with Joel Matip. The Hammers attempted six shots and scored the goals with only three shots on target. Liverpool players contested 19 duels in the defensive third and won six defensive duels. The players won only seven duels cleanly, and the other duels resulted in a loss or a neutral result.
The Reds struggled to win their duels against Brighton as well. They contested 54 offensive duels with a 35.2% win rate. 37 loose ball duels were contested in that match, but they won only 27% of them.
The above viz is the shot map from their match against Brighton & Hove Albion. Liverpool’s xG rate this season is 26.91 and this is the highest threat rate in the league. The team averages 2.44 xG per match. Against Brighton, the expected goal rate of the Merseyside team was less than their average rate this season. Their expected goal rate against West Ham United was 1.95.
The Reds have attempted 193 shots so far and had 74 shots on target. Their average for shots per match is 17.5, and 6.7 shots per game have been on target. In the match against Brighton, they only had three shots on target. Five shots were attempted from inside the opposition’s penalty box, and the team averages more than ten shots from inside the opposition’s box this season. Their shot attempts and shot accuracy decreased a lot in the game against Brighton. Against West Ham United, Jurgen Klopp’s men attempted 15 shots but only had five shots on target.
Liverpool have been the most attacking side this season in the English Premier League. The Reds have scored 31 goals and conceded 11. Last season they scored 68 goals and conceded 42. This season, they have shown some defensive stability and average one goal against per match, but their recent performances have raised some questions on their defense. The team conceded three goals against West Ham United, and that too with only three shots attempted towards their goal. They face an in-form Arsenal side in the next game at Anfield and will look to catch the Premier League leaders with a win over the North Londoners.
