Missing the Target

Liverpool equalled shots on target records against Galatasaray, which is odd considering how bad they've been at producing them this season

The Liverpool of 2025/26 are like a box of chocolates you might pick up at Gump and Son’s. You never know what you’re going to get. Inept and anaemic in attack against Tottenham, they were rampant against Galatasaray.

Not just incisive but also record equalling. The 16 shots on target fired off by the Reds equalled their previous Champions League high, notched in their 8-0 thumping of Beşiktaş in 2007. As bad as Liverpool usually play in Turkey, they make up for it when their sides visit Anfield.

The shots on target count also matched the most any side has recorded in a knockout phase match in Europe’s top club competition since 2017. The table of the top eight (below) is interesting as five of the instances took place this year. Is the Champions League more unbalanced than ever?

Arne Slot’s men should probably have secured the above records outright, as Mohamed Salah thumped a close range shot against the crossbar. Nobody except the referee thought Virgil van Dijk had fouled goalkeeper Ugurcan Çakir before Alexis Mac Allister put the ball in the net either. Hey ho; in the book of Liverpool problems this season, this is buried somewhere in the appendix.

There’s also no question that Galatasaray were very accommodating visitors on Wednesday, especially once qualifying was no longer their business. Even so, shooting on target has been a real problem for Liverpool in 2025/26, as this chart from ‪@christina6ys demonstrates. They’ve needed 56 shots for every 16 they’ve mustered on target in the league, making their midweek performance a notable outlier.

It is unusual to shoot so erratically when dominating the ball as much. None of the nine Premier League teams with a lower shot accuracy percentage than the Liverpool of 2025/26 finished above 11th in the table. Their average position was 16.7 and five of them were relegated. These are not teams to emulate.

Yet we find Slot’s side fifth in the table despite being unable to hit the proverbial barn door. For all that late defensive lapses have cost them, their attacking misfires are the bigger issue. Some of the player figures are extraordinarily bad.

Across the last decade of Premier League football, there have been 37 men who’ve taken at least 57 shots in a season while putting no more than 29.2 per cent of them on target. At that rate, a club might expect to have two such high volume, low accuracy shooters every 10 years.

Liverpool have three of them this season alone.

The fact they are all part of what would be considered the front three of choice makes it harder to stomach. While Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike and Salah are the offenders in question, Ryan Gravenberch and Mac Allister combining for 72 shots at 26.3 per cent accuracy hasn’t helped either. Only Florian Wirtz (36.6 per cent) and player of the season elect Dominik Szoboszlai (34.5) have scraped above average from a reasonable sample of goal attempts.

Mac Allister (with Brighton in 2021/22) and Szoboszlai’s debut campaign in England are also among the aforementioned sample of ineptitude. Five of the 37 worst shooters since 2016 are starting for Liverpool more or less every week.

Are you ready to dig into three bad shot maps? Buckle up. Pack a sick bag.

Cody Gakpo. 67 shots, 15 on target, six goals

Gakpo’s season hasn’t been quite as bad as wider perception would have you believe. Only Ekitike has scored more Premier League goals. The Dutchman’s two strikes against the rest of the top six is the most in open play. Gakpo was Liverpool’s leading creator of Opta-defined big chances in all competitions before Salah overtook him with a pair against Galatasaray.

But the reason the left forward is perceived to have had a stinker in 2025/26 is laid bare by his shot map.

The 26-year-old’s 22 efforts from outside the box is the joint-16th most in the Premier League. They have produced a solitary shot on target. There have been more after he has crossed the 18-yard-line but most of his saved efforts were hit from outside the danger zone. Even Gakpo’s goal from wide left in the penalty box needed a massive deflection to go in against West Ham.

The red blob in the middle of the six-yard box - as in a shot on the above pitch map, not Gakpo - was an 86th minute Kop end miss against Manchester United. The view of his 2025/26 campaign was probably damaged beyond repair by that moment.

There is so much room for improvement though. You could swing a cat in there.

Hugo Ekitike. 65 shots, 19 on target, 11 goals

Wastefulness in front of goal was the major question mark over Ekitike ahead of his move to Liverpool. Yet no player with at least eight goal attempts in the league for the club this term can match him for conversion rate of shots or shots on target.

Ekitike’s record for the latter is remarkable. He has the highest rate for turning efforts on target into goals among any of the 255 player campaigns from the last decade to feature at least 65 shots.

The problem has been getting the ball between the sticks in the first place. As much as Ekitike squandered some great chances in 2024/25, his shot accuracy this season is 10 percent below his Bundesliga rate, 15 adrift of what he posted in Ligue 1.

A tax on moving to the Premier League? Maybe. And it’s unrealistic to expect anywhere near every high value chance to be put away. But Ekitike’s close-range off target shots include efforts in home draws with Burnley and Leeds and the 2-1 defeat to Manchester City. The mood would be brighter around Anfield if they had been converted.

Mohamed Salah. 57 shots, 14 on target, five goals (including one penalty)

The ultimate mystery of 2025/26. For Salah to be taking fewer shots than ever before is one thing, perhaps even to be expected as age starts to bite. Combining that with his worst accuracy rate means that the Egyptian is barely delivering above half his previous low for shots on target per 90 minutes.

For this to be the case, Salah has to have seen more of his goal attempts blocked or go off target. Obviously. To be 8.0 per cent worse than his career average for the former and 10.7 for the latter is a double outlier though. As his touch in general play looks a chasm away from his old self, we shouldn’t be shocked that his shooting has fallen apart too.

Conclusion

Gakpo has been too impatient, Ekitike may always be a little wasteful and Salah is having a desperately poor season that nobody would have foreseen.

As much as the players have to take responsibility for their efforts, it has long been known that finishing is somewhat random. The team’s general failings combined with the low block, low quality football plague have contributed too.

Liverpool last spent a lower proportion of their time winning in their league matches in 2011/12, a campaign so bad the club’s greatest legend had to be fired. It’s not a situation conducive to better shooting.

No wonder Gakpo panics or Ekitike snatches at opportunities or Salah creaks when no longer part of a well-oiled machines. The pressure is intense and can only be eased by taking the lead more often. Hopefully the win over Galatasaray will relax the heavy shooters.

The ultimate outcome of 2025/26 depends on it.