The Week That Was: Southampton and World Cup build-up
It's beginning to look a lot like Qatar...
And we’re back, for a final bask in club football before the World Cup overwhelms us.
Liverpool FC
In the Jürgen Klopp version of Succession at Liverpool, who is Kendall, Roman or Shiv? I’ve taken a closer look at Xabi Alonso’s managerial career, for starters.
Darwin Nunez did something in the 3-1 win over Southampton which had previously been achieved by a Liverpool player once since the summer of 2018. #OnlySalah, inevitably. But what are we talking about?
It’s somewhat related to Harvey Elliott, who collected his first Premier League assist in the win over Southampton. An eye-catching tweet showed the teenager is the top midfielder in England for involvement in chance build up, so I wrote about that.
Twitter being Twitter, opinion is split on the news of Curtis Jones’ new contract extension. For me, it’s a win-win, and here’s why.
Despite not making an amazing start to the season, Mohamed Salah has 14 goals and five assists. Best of all, there’s firm reason to believe his output is set to markedly improve. The explanation for why can be consumed and enjoyed here.
Back to Darwin, and it’s a double dose for Liverpool.com. Here’s a look at some numbers which suggest he’s now fully integrated in Klopp’s side, and in another article, I consider the small margins which have stopped his good start in England from being stellar.
Links to follow: At the time of publishing the newsletter, the below stories haven’t gone live. The links will be added but only after the email goes out.
Andy Robertson recently equalled the Premier League record for assists by a defender, while only two players have ever recorded more seasons in which they set up at least 12 goals than Trent Alexander-Arnold. They’re not bad, are they? A closer look at their record-setting numbers to follow.
Transfers
If Liverpool happen to be looking for a Darwin deputy, they could do a lot worse than look at Molde’s David Datro Fofana. Oh wait, rumour has it that they are.
World Cup stuff
Ever wondered who has the most knock-out phase goals at the World Cup? Or the most strikes in a single tournament or the best goals-per-game record? Find the answers to those and other queries here.
If you’re more interested in who was the top scorer in qualifying, with an eye on the Golden Boot, I took a look at the numbers. I also devised a simple system to account for fixture difficulty, to make the cross-continental comparisons fair. See what you think.
This one was on the Echo but was World Cup related so belongs in this section. How many players will the big six clubs in England have in the latter stages of the World Cup, and can Liverpool take advantage? Link to follow…
And finally (World Cup betting previews)
On this page, I’ll be posting brief previews and correct score guesses for every match at the 2022 World Cup. The above tweet contains a poll asking how many I’ll get right. I’m not as confident as the most popular answer.
But the tournament is finally here. Feels weird, doesn’t it? And as I write this, Twitter is awash with news that beer will not be served at that matches, when it was previously stated that it would be. A tiny issue in a tournament full of them.
Enjoy the football or ignore it entirely as you prefer, and have yourself a fine week.