For the ninth successive time, Liverpool’s visitors could not stop them from winning by a margin of two or more goals, with Brentford the latest to fall victim.
“More than 20 years ago when I started my career, I wanted to create a team that nobody wants to play against, and we faced that team today,” Klopp said of Brentford, high praise indeed.
But what could have been a banana skin for Liverpool was a 3-0 victory that pushed them to second in the table and only a point behind Man City.
On the eye, Liverpool looked in control of their fate against the Bees but FotMob showed the difference in expected goals (xG) was marginal, the Reds had 1.71 xG compared to 1.68 for Brentford.
The Reds allowed 16 shots from the opposition but restricted them to just three on target, compared to 10 of their own – with Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota proving the difference.
And by doing so, the duo helped the Reds equal a record that has been standing since 1980.
9 in row for the first time since 1980
Nine home matches across all competitions this season have made for nine victories for Klopp’s men.
And what Bournemouth, Aston Villa, West Ham, Leicester, Union SG, Everton, Toulouse, Nottingham Forest and Brentford have in common is they have all lost by a margin of two or more goals.
And with the help of Opta, we know that the last time Liverpool achieved such a feat at Anfield was in 1980, 43 years ago.
The aggregate scoreline across the abovementioned nine games is 27-4, and the next chance to break the record and make it 10 in row with a two or more goal winning margin will be when LASK visit on November 30.
Fortess Anfield.
Midfield battle leaves room to improve
Liverpool’s midfield options have taken a hit of late and against Brentford they were without five senior options, leaving Klopp to opt for Cody Gakpo to add extra height in the middle of the park.
The midfield has come under fire in recent matches due to their inability to win the ball and we saw that again on Sunday, but not to such an extreme.
“We obviously didn’t play perfect football yet, not even close,” Klopp assessed after the win, and a look at Liverpool’s midfield duels will show just that.
As a midfield trio, that is eight duels won from the 23 contested for a success rate of just 34.8 percent – not entirely conducive to success, and thankfully it did not need to be this time.
That is both ground and aerial duels combined and it’s an area that Liverpool need to improve on the other side of the break.
Captain Van Dijk
Leading from the back, Virgil van Dijk has gone about his business without too much attention from outside Liverpool’s four walls, but he is back to making his role look easy once more.
We all know he is not the player he was before his ACL injury but he is back to dominating the opposition and giving his team a solid platform to build from in defence.
He was utterly dominant against a Brentford side not afraid to attack:
- 10/12 duels won – highest of any player
- 4 clearances – joint-third most
- 89% passing accuracy – highest of any player
- 2 blocks – highest of any player
- 10/10 accurate long balls
On the ball and off it, he was as calm as you like. It’s good to have this Virgil van Dijk back.
FotMob is an essential app for any fan to keep up with their team or follow football worldwide, it has everything you could want and you can download the FotMob App here.
