Liverpool's Goal Involvements (No, not goals or assists)

Liverpool have already recorded a couple of very long possession sequences leading to goals this season. Is it a tactical shift or a random occurrence?

Four different forwards scored for Liverpool against Bournemouth, a rare occurrence. There have only been three instances of five scoring for a team in a Premier League match, positional vagaries notwithstanding.

At no point were the Reds’ productive quartet on the pitch together. Not that Arne Slot would be afraid to use four at once; he deployed five simultaneously in the most interesting five minutes of 2024/25. Perhaps he’ll unleash a quintet later this season once Alexander Isak is on board.

The Most Interesting Five Minutes of 2024/25

Liverpool failed to score when they had five forwards together, which happened against Crystal Palace in the final game of the campaign. Something interesting occurred shortly after that period shuddered to a halt after Ryan Gravenberch’s red card ordered a tactical rethink though. The last goal of 2024/25 was unique for the campaign in that four forwards were involved in the sequence which led to it.

Not only that, they made the final four contributions: Diogo Jota played the ball into space on the right flank, from where Darwin Núñez crossed to the back post. Cody Gakpo then headed the ball into the centre of the box for Mohamed Salah to round off an unforgettable season with its closing goal. Here’s the clip.

Goals with three forwards linking up aren’t as unusual. Luis Díaz passed to Salah for him to assist Gakpo against both Leverkusen and Fulham last year, for instance. The latter two players were also part of the sequence which led to Federico Chiesa’s decisive goal on Friday.

It was a slightly strange passage of play, which began with a free-kick. Bournemouth made four clearances within the move yet couldn’t reclaim possession, which explains why eight Liverpool men were involved yet the longest sequence of successful passes only ran to five.

This is evidence of the pressure the Reds put opposing teams under. Getting a touch only to immediately need to defend again is a regular occurrence against Liverpool. The first goal of 2025/26 is Exhibit A for this phenomenon.

Much was made Hugo Ekitike’s Wembley strike being the culmination of a 22-pass move. Yet the full sequence ran to 49 actions with all 11 players making contributions. It just featured a couple of minor interventions from Palace along the way which broke it into chunks.

An eight-man, 18-pass possession chain delivered the first goal of the Premier League campaign, again for Ekitike. That it featured Alisson Becker but not Florian Wirtz shows how random such things can be. It feels striking that two of Liverpool’s first three goals of 2025/26 featured such lengthy sequences, though.

With Opta data enabling a check of all shot-ending possession sequences, it’s time to review Liverpool’s data for last season to see how unusual Ekitike’s goal build-ups are. Has this been a tactical development or is it random chance?

We can see which players were most involved in the goals while we’re at it. This is a rare attacking metric for which Salah does not finish first.