It's Time For Change

Both for me and Liverpool

I’m going to be taking a look at the age profile of Liverpool’s squad in a minute but before that *personal news klaxon*.

After almost five years of working freelance for Reach (predominantly the Liverpool Echo and Liverpool.com), my time with them is ending this month. This will sadly leave a significant hole in my finances and a sizeable gap in my schedule.

So, here’s what I’m thinking: I will start writing regularly on this here newsletter. Really regularly. The aim will be to publish a new post every weekday, likely in the style of what I’ve written for the aforementioned publications. There’ll be looks at points of interest from the last game, player overviews, maybe an assessment of the data for the latest Liverpool transfer link; you know the drill.

While people were frequently complimentary about my work for Reach, I often received feedback that far less popular were the a) clickbait-y, almost cryptic headlines, and b) the adverts which made the stories very difficult to read.

There won’t be any of that here. But in time there may be a paywall on some articles; perhaps two free pieces a week, three for which you would have to pay. I won’t put the barriers up yet as the 2022/23 season is mercifully almost up, and if further paid work comes my way in the meantime then this idea may swiftly be abandoned.

But I thought I’d float the idea here. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please comment below. Right, on with the show.

Time for a refresh

Earlier this week I tweeted a table of the age data for the midfields of the 20 Premier League clubs this season. Where the other 19 teams had an average of 70 per cent of the minutes by players aged 22 to 28, Liverpool had just seven percent. There has been a shade under 300 minutes for Curtis Jones and Naby Keïta and that’s your lot.

I was then on the Analysing Anfield podcast (below), where we discussed the figures among many other issues which have afflicted the Reds this season.

While talking with host Josh Williams, I mentioned that the issue of youngsters and veterans extends across the whole Liverpool team, if not in as pronounced fashion as exists in the centre of 11. With that in mind, here’s a graph showing the percentage of minutes allotted to each age range in 2022/23.

The margin is not as wide as for midfield alone but the Reds have given the most minutes to men who are currently 29 or older. While signing, oh, I don’t know, Jude Bellingham wouldn’t make the orange line any bigger next season, it should ensure the grey line is shorter. That is clearly what Liverpool need, even if the chart shows there is certainly no distinct correlation between youth and success.

It promises to be a fascinating summer.

Other work highlights

As per the first section, this part won’t exist too much longer. But for now, links for my work from this week can be found here, and here are my three favourites.

1. Harvey Elliott has overtaken Thiago Alcantara for one of the latter’s most important pass types.

2. Liverpool have had just one shot in each of their last three second halves. Is that Klopp’s fault? It might be.

3. The Reds style of play has changed in two ways since last season and the fact they contradict each other says plenty about their problems.

Share the things you love

I was at an event earlier this week where Gillian and Steve from New Order discussed the making of their Low-life album (arguably their best work). I learned that while they spent nine months working on The Perfect Kiss, they gave birth to the below 17-minute wonder in one night. That difference is the madness of creativity summed up perfectly. Have a great Easter and save me an egg.