Liverpool's Greatest Counter Threat May Now Be Their Biggest Weakness
Liverpool are the Premier League's masters of goals from counter attacks. Or they were, so what has gone wrong this season?
Liverpool have had two Premier League campaigns since the summer of 2011 in which they scored more than 11 per cent of their goals through Opta-defined fast breaks (counter attacks): 2019/20 and 2024/25. To say they have proven important is selling the idea shorter than the big short.
A line in a newsletter from last week showed the Reds are failing on that front this term. “Liverpool have scored just three fast break goals and are playing like they can’t do anything quickly, least of all tear up field to put the ball in the net.” They have since played well at Arsenal without doing anything to disprove this statement.
While their blazing hot breaks have cooled down this term, goals from counter attacks still represent a higher proportion of the Reds’ total in 2025/26 (9.4 per cent) than league average (6.1). Their greater concern is not scoring enough in total, but Arne Slot’s Liverpool have scored 14.4 per cent of their Premier League goals via fast breaks when the average across Jürgen Klopp’s full seasons was 7.9. Teams from Accrington up to Bayer Leverkusen have conceded seven times on the counter to the Reds in cup competitions in the previous 18 months too.
As with any aspect of the club this season, there are flaws in the picture, chinks in the armour. Klopp’s Liverpool were more efficient at converting their fast break shots, at 26.4 per cent to 18.7, with Slot’s side dropping from 21.2 last season to 12.0 in 2025/26.
This is a more notable shift, given 18.6 of counter attack shots in the Premier League find the net. The club with more top flight goals of this type than any other since 2011 has fallen below par. There is one man who looks most culpable for this disappointing trend.
This won’t be the revelation it would’ve been in years past. Boom, analysis, shock, fiver a month please, mic drop; sorry, no. Salah’s influence was so great in this regard last season that it still feels slightly shocking to blame him for this slump though.
He had 36 fast break shots in all competitions in 2024/25. If you add the totals of Liverpool’s second to fifth highest counter attack shooters, you only get to 41. No player created more in these situations than Salah either (13), albeit Cody Gakpo matched him. The former would be top for involvements on shots alone anyway.
Yes, yes, the Egyptian had the most playing time of anyone at the club too. As Salah was top on a per 90 minutes basis, with 0.26 created and 0.72 shot for 0.98 in total, that’s irrelevant. We’re all friends here, let’s just say you’d see Liverpool’s number 11 contributing directly to a counter attack shot once per game last season. It was truly phenomenal. And guess what?
Salah’s rate has gone up in 2025/26.
Mic drop, etc. The rates for the next tier of Liverpool players are in the same ballparks as they were last term, there’s just a few different names in there. So what has happened to Salah’s output if the numbers are broadly the same? Now it’s time to hand over your fiver to find out. Sorry about that.
