Arne Slot's Subtle Sub Impact

Liverpool got numerous goals and assists from their bench last season. That hasn't happened yet under Arne Slot but the impact has still been there.

“Of Liverpool’s last 23 goals it was the 20th scored in the second half and it was done.”

Sid Lowe reporting on Girona 0-1 Liverpool for The Guardian

Liverpool’s win at Girona on Tuesday was not a shining beacon of an advertisement for the new Champions League format. The Reds didn’t particularly need to win, while the home side’s priority was to avoid defeat. That’s not a set of circumstances likely to birth a classic.

Had either side scored early, perhaps it would have been different. Girona’s three highest value chances, per FBRef, were on the board by the 17th minute. If one had been converted, Liverpool would’ve opened up a bit more. The game might have spiralled in entertaining fashion.

The Reds’ best non-penalty chance came in the first half too, Darwin Núñez seeing his effort saved. That this opportunity went begging was not a surprise for two reasons: a) the Uruguayan is an unreliable finisher, and b) as per the quote at the top, scoring early hasn’t been something which Liverpool have done too often recently.

It’s not that they haven’t been trying, of course. The Reds scored in 10 of their first 13 first halves this season, with at least one Opta-defined big chance in all-but-three of their opening 45-minute periods in 2024/25. As finishing is fairly random, the time in a match at which the goals are scored is by default too.

Since the summer of 2008, 56 per cent of Premier League goals have been scored after the interval. Liverpool’s proportion this season? 55 per cent. They’re on par for the timing breakdown of their goals, as above average as they are in so many other respects.

That’s not to say there isn’t something interesting about when Arne Slot’s side has been scoring recently, and not just that most of the goals have been in the second half. The head coach’s influence from the sidelines perhaps explains the phenomenon too.