Blimey, I thought they had a liking for it from time to time etc but that's bordering on extraordinary.
The thing is though.. if you look at the bottom 6 teams there, and slightly more arbitrarily assess vaguely comparable teams (for what we might say is their ability on paper) , it rather looks like trying to play football isn't really working.
The 6 are all 20+ pts behind LFC. And Sheff Utd are far better off than say Villa and Bournemouth.
Can't isolate to 1 factor, but does seem like a bit of a theme.
I’d argue that *’s primitive, long-ball style of play being somewhat successful this past two seasons is completely anomalous and not sustainable in the long term. Teams will cotton on to them (and arguably already have, judging by their atrocious record in all competitions from the end of February onwards) and seeing how they are out-performing xG and xP metrics by a wide margin would lead anyone to believe they will return to the mean sooner rather than later.
(I’m not a huge believer in judging matches solely on xG as there are massive variables at play between different teams, players and conditions, but using xG in conjunction what we are all seeing in front of our eyes regarding *’s septic performances throughout the year, it’s fair to say that their points haul the past two seasons has been the most flattering any team have ever collated in any league ever.)
Here’s hoping Klopp continues their descent into hoofball heaven.
