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.
