Stat of the Match: Ipswich 0-2 Liverpool

These go to 11. Or do they?

Liverpool began the Arne Slot era with a 2-0 win over Ipswich Town at Portman Road. The performance was the inverse of the old Sven-Göran Eriksson line; first half not so good, second half good.

Second half very good, in fact. In the opening 45 minutes, the Reds had struggled to get their front three into the match in any meaningful sense. Mohamed Salah played three passes from inside the Tractor Boys’ penalty area, two of which were unsuccessful, the other which went outside it (to tee up Trent Alexander-Arnold for a shot which flew over the bar). Still, at least the Egyptian succeeded with something from inside the box; Luis Díaz and Diogo Jota had each received a pass in the 18-yard area but delivered nothing themselves from within that zone.

The problems in building attacks clearly did not lie with Jarell Quansah, yet Slot withdrew him at the interval. Speaking after the game, the Dutchman coined perhaps the first famous line of his tenure: “We don't need to talk about tactics if we don't win our duels.”

Liverpool’s rate for winning duels rose by 13 per cent in the second half, though how much of that was due to them and how much was down to referee Tim Robinson is up for debate. The duels metric incorporates dribbles, tackles and fouls, with the Reds’ recording 13 of the latter in the first half of a Premier League match for the first time since February 2009 (per Opta Analyst).

As noted by Between The Posts, the Reds’ head coach also changed the positioning of his centre-backs after the break, making them harder to press:

The more solid foundation in the second half enabled the three attackers in particular to repeatedly rip the Ipswich back line apart. Salah assisted a goal for Jota then scored himself, while Díaz completed four dribbles in-or-just-outside the home side’s box.

Slot was likely pleased with his left-winger’s dribbling. Feyenoord completed 11.6 take-ons per 90 in the Eredivisie last season, Liverpool 8.7 in England. The Reds’ tally will likely increase under the Dutchman.

But Díaz’s productivity following dribbles will need to increase too. His first in the second half was followed by a shot which went wide of the goal, his second and third with an unsuccessful pass in the Ipswich box. He did at least finish the game well, with a 92nd minute take-on enabling the Colombian to set up a big chance for Conor Bradley.

Díaz could also rightfully argue that only Alejandro Garnacho generated more chance-creating carries in the English top flight last season. It feels like he could improve nonetheless. Hopefully Slot can take him up a level.

Liverpool’s front three might not have been comprised of Derek Smalls, David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel at Portman Road but, like Spın̈al Tap, they all went to 11. The dials on the ‘touches in the box’ amplifier went to 11 in east Anglia. One louder for all three.

Or at least they did according to Fotmob. The match report on FBRef has Jota and Salah on 10 - still full volume - with Díaz one behind them. Even at these lower levels, it was still only the ninth instance of a side having three players with at least nine box touches in a Premier League away game since 2017. Data companies count different things when it comes to the touch metric, but Liverpool’s attacking trident amassed almost all of this elite combined tally in the second half.

Alexander-Arnold’s passing performance contains data discrepancies too. Understat will tell you he assisted chances collectively worth 1.19 expected goals on Saturday, the sixth best tally of his Premier League career. FBRef gave him a far more conservative 0.7, the discrepancy coming from the value of the difficult chance Díaz scooped over the bar with Town goalkeeper Christian Walton closing him down. Awkward for the Colombian it might have been, but it was still Liverpool’s first Opta-defined big chance of the contest, Alexander-Arnold laying on the second, for Jota, four minutes after that.

Seventy seconds later, the Reds led. Salah might have provided the assist but he was played in superbly by Liverpool’s right-back. Added to the two clear-cut chances, Alexander-Arnold reached a very rare benchmark.

His passes were worth 1.0 xA in FBRef’s model. To confuse matters, this is not expected assists in the sense of the xG value of chances set up from a player’s passes. It is “the likelihood each completed pass becomes a goal assist given the pass type, phase of play, location and distance,” so valuing all passes rather than those which directly precede a shot.

Since the start of 2017/18, there have been just 17 instances of a player recording at least 1.0 xA in a Premier League away game. Kevin De Bruyne has done this three times, Alexander-Arnold twice (with a 2-2 draw at Tottenham in 2021 the other example) and nobody else has done it more than once.

With respect to Ipswich, it’s only about 15 months since they were in League One. Liverpool’s key men recorded some impressive numbers but tougher tests lie in wait.

Equally, the bulk of what they did was confined to one half of the match. If Slot can keep Alexander-Arnold passing to that level while enabling his forwards to get up towards 11 for box touches, this could be a very good campaign indeed. Tap into their power, Arne.