Liverpool are an Ineffective Tactical Outlier

It doesn't matter whether Liverpool show patience or urgency, their attack is not as effective as it should be either way.

It started, as attacking moves frequently do, with an innocuous throw-in. Curtis Jones restarted play by hurling the ball to Ryan Gravenberch, who passed infield to Conor Bradley. He transferred possession to Dominik Szoboszlai, who returned it to enable the right-back to find Jones on the left flank.

The #17 passed to Florian Wirtz (as he frequently does), with the German picking out Milos Kerkez on the edge of the penalty area. He crossed to Virgil van Dijk, whose touch steered the ball to fellow veteran Mohamed Salah. The 33-year-old laid the ball back, out of the box, for Szoboszlai to have Liverpool’s first shot on target of the match.

Eight players had combined to produce a 10-pass move that generated a goal attempt which forced a save. A beautiful sequence of play. It was a pity that Liverpool were already 3-0 down to Manchester City at the time, wasn’t it?

Three minutes later, a Kerkez header on the half way line set Salah through on goal for an Opta-defined big chance. Where it had taken 10 passes to produce a 0.03 expected goal chance for Szoboszlai, an 0.25 xG opportunity came via a full-back heading a clearance back whence it came.

That both shots were missed is not a surprise when you look at the data on the Opta Analyst website. The former was classified as a Build-up Attack, the latter a Direct Attack. The Reds have been bad at converting both of these contrasting style of attacking moves in 2025/26.

Liverpool have had more shots from direct attacks than any other team in the Premier League this season. Only four teams have had more thanks to build-ups, with just two of those being more than three in front of the Reds. The goal figures are far less encouraging, which brings the tactical plan into question.