The Match, The Stat: Liverpool 2-1 Wolves
A nervy win is still a win.
Top Five Stats
Liverpool have scored two first half goals just twice in the Premier League this season. Ryan Gravenberch got the opener both times.
Hugo Ekitike has scored or assisted three of Liverpool’s last four Opta-defined fast break goals.
Only Aston Villa (seven) are on a longer unbeaten run in the Premier League than Liverpool (six). By the time you read this, Villa’s streak may have ended.
No team in Europe’s big five leagues has conceded more set play goals than the Reds this season. Liverpool are level with Bournemouth on 12.
The Reds have now been 2-0 up at half time in four league games at Anfield under Arne Slot. They have ‘lost’ the second half every time.
Match Review
‘Tis the season to be jolly. Apparently.
Two goals to the good at half time, Liverpool let Wolves back into the game after the break. The Reds thankfully hung on to claim three points after letting the result get too close for comfort against a desperately poor side.
In February. But also today. The champions elect had the nerves of trying to complete the quest for the title whereas the class of 2025/26 are injury-ravaged with confidence low. Either way, the net result was more or less the same against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Liverpool like playing at this time of year. They came into this game having won 17 of their last 20 Premier League matches between Christmas and New Year. Even if their festive record happened to be dreadful, you’d still back them to beat a Wolves side on course to be the worst in the modern history of the English top flight.
The Reds also have an excellent record at Anfield when 2-0 up at half time, as you would expect. A 2.92 points-per-game average across 76 Premier League examples, only three of the matches were not won. One of them was a dead rubber against Arsenal last season, showing how rare it is for Liverpool to throw away a 2-0 advantage at the interval when it matters.
So why did the second half of this match contain so much anxiety? It’s the same old story; a weakness at defending set plays combined with an inability to control games with tired legs.
If you wanted to be charitable, you could say Wolves were in position to play with the freedom that being two goals down and already preparing for Championship football allows. But it comes down to the Liverpool team fraying at the edges as matches wear on, as pressure ratchets up.
They completed 90.6 of their passes prior to the Wolves goal, 82.8 from that point to full time. The teams were level on completed penalty area passes in the latter period (with three apiece), tied for chances created in the centre of the box (two each). The sting needed taking out of the game by the home side. Instead it was there throughout, on hand to make the Reds cry right up to the final whistle.
It was so frustrating as Liverpool scored a couple of great goals in the first half. If they had wanted to emphasise the core points of recent ABF newsletters, they couldn’t have tried much harder.
Florian Wirtz continued his strong link-up with Hugo Ekitike when setting him up to hit the post. This was the first of the Reds’ two Opta-defined counter attack shots, with the German converting the second thanks to the former Eintracht Frankfurt forward providing the assist. There was also a cutback which led to a goal, with Ryan Gravenberch breaking the deadlock. It’s always encouraging to see patterns from previous games reaffirmed.
Alas, the same old nerves returned. On the pitch, in the stands, perhaps in the dugout too. Maybe scrambled minds were inevitable on the day Liverpool and Wolves paid collective tribute to Diogo Jota. Or maybe the Reds just aren’t very good this season. It could easily be both.
We will likely learn a little more against Leeds next time out, as they are the top scorers of set piece Premier League goals in 2025/26. It’ll probably be tense again, so get ready.
Source for graphics: markstatsbot, FotMob.
I was thinking it's so hard to know what to expect from Liverpool this season. But perhaps this is exactly what to expect. Sublime and ridiculous, hand in hand.
If my maths are right then we conceded 28 big chances in our first 9 PL matches this season and have only conceded 12 in our last 9 (per Sofascore data).
Unsurprising then that we have taken 17pts from those 9. While that in itself is nothing special, if we can sustain this defensive performance for the rest of the season then it should be enough to finish in the top 5 as we will always have a goal threat even if the football itself is a bit ugly at times.
Of course the main problem with that is our desperate shortage of defenders. It’s unlikely our 2 centre halves will remain unscathed all season, so we need to buy one in January and then we can probably all sleep a bit more soundly that CL football will be secured again.
If we don’t buy then we are taking a big risk.