A modern parable

open.substack.com/pub/sportsci... Nice of @simonbrundish.bsky.social to blog about the Q i asked last night. Essential footy data nerdery #lfc

Opta distance covered on fotmob vs UEFA's in-house provider. More than 6km difference on Real's total. That's half a player and outside a +/- 5% margin of error. Crazy that different providers can push this stuff out to fans #UCL #championsleague #uefa

This is more like the REAL liverpool! A more compact approach off ball, with a new passing structure on ball, getting rewards in a big game! The Real Madrid Stats Pack: https://drbarts.quarto.pub/cl-match-day-4-season-2526/ follow @anfieldindex.com for more content

I've seen hundreds of #lfc pass networks but never one like this. New and exciting!

Liverpool 1 : 0 Real Madrid ▪ xG: 2.5 - 0.52 ▪ xThreat: 1.24 - 0.91 ▪ Possession: 39.9% - 60.1% ▪ Field Tilt: 44.1% - 55.9% ▪ Def Action Height: 48.3 - 41.6

Mo Salah completed more dribbles (5) vs Aston Villa than *the rest of his 25/26 season combined*. 5 more vs Real tonight, so 10 in 2 games matching the total from his previous 20 (twenty) #LFC appearances

Last seasons midfield *with a fit Mac Allister* makes #LFC a completely proposition. All of a sudden Konate looks better AND Bradley looks better..2 clean sheets, only 1 big chance, 0.8xga.

Conor picked a good night to get his mojo back. Been the worst regular starter by a margin this season- and I'm one of his biggest fans! #lfc

Return of the Mac #lfc

Watching Prime Vision is a perfect evolution for a nerd like me. 22 player ball tracking at all times plus popups for sprint speeds, distances, XG, xSave, possession values and more

Garbage time oh how we have missed you! A return to the title side, some signs of recovery and finally multiple 5+ connections with Mo. The Aston Villa Stats Pack: https://drbarts.quarto.pub/match-day-10-season-2526/ follow @anfieldindex.com for more content

Glad Arne got asked this post match. The Slot chant from the Kop on 23 minutes was a big deal and a big show of support #lfc

Liverpool 2 : 0 Aston Villa ▪ xG: 1.18 - 0.5 ▪ xThreat: 1.32 - 0.86 ▪ Possession: 54.7% - 45.3% ▪ Field Tilt: 55.9% - 44.1% ▪ Def Action Height: 51.2 - 41.5

Mohamed Salah's goal in Liverpool's 2-0 win over Aston Villa tonight was his 276th goal involvement for the Reds in the Premier League, taking him level with Wayne Rooney for the most G+A for a single club in the competition. #LFC

Long balls vs #lfc this season 84 Bournemouth 66 Newcastle 71 Arsenal 59 Burnley 82 Everton 82 Palace 95 chelsea 91 united 75 brentford 47 ASTON VILLA

I don't think we're out of the woods yet because we still need to face down an ultra direct opponent. But the immediate priority was stopping the bleeding. My latest substack post proved quite timely #lfc

Szobo got a yellow for showboating???

🚨🚨🚨WE ACTUALLY SCORED THE FIRST GOAL🚨🚨🚨 #LFC

New post from me looking at the previous time #LFC went on a terrible #PremierLeague run when they were defending champions open.substack.com/pub/dankenne...

So it turns out the selection choice was boringly sports-sciencey. Schedule is Wed-Sat-Tue and only 2 days in between each so Slot chose tonight to ensure the seniors can play Sat-Tue. #lfc

Bright first 30 with good intensity but then not very much. All the kids stuck at it and the crowd really good considering. Excellent early rendition of YNWA. Ramsay the best of the kids, Chiesa best overall and should be banging down the managers door to start over gakpo/wirtz/Salah #lfc

Some decent play and performances (Ramsay, Chiesa) in that 1st half but 2 defensive lapses and Sarr is clinical Overall this shape suits a lot of the players selected tonight which is in stark contrast to most of the season so far #lfc

Quality finish that

Chiesa is the only forward on the books who has the required intensity to have played in the Klopp 2017-20 teams. And he's shown it in every appearance this season. So unlucky not to have more starts #lfc

Kerkez with a Hungary/Bournemouth cross!

This could be the shortest XI in #lfc history. Only 1 player over 1.8m! Saying that, I'm particulatly keen to see Calvin Ramsay after his 3 years of injury hell

Regulars will know that we publish a statspack for each game. Using the Monte Carlo for each match we can create an xPoints model. When you look at the 9 games in totality you can see the absolutely wild journey #lfc have taken to end up exactly where we deserve to be based on our performances

Couple of follow-up charts to my substack post from last week. You may have seen that Brentford forced more duel situations than the Goodison Derby last season

Another high event, coin flip match. It's like October 2022 rather than October 2024. Unfortunately the #lfc process is genuinely mediocre and we can forget about the PL title...let's re-focus on winning a PL game

The #1 Question I had going into the season was whether Wirtz was good enough off the ball to be a 3rd midfielder in the PL. 14 games in and its an emphatic no. He can only be the 3rd forward with 3 actual mids behind him #lfc

After researching this piece, here's my team for tonight. Need to go back to basics and face down what the oppo are doing ...........Mama Gomez-konate-VVD-Kerkez Salah-Szobo-Jones-Gakpo ........wirtz/mac ........ekitike 451 without the ball Maximum height Gomez tucking in, Kerkez overlapping

open.substack.com/pub/dankenne... New post from me looking at how and why opponents have changed the way they play #LFC

So I took a look at all the data I could find that indicates "directness". Fair to say that opponents have significantly changed how they play #LFC this season. And while we continue to have bad outcomes in terms of goals conceded, opponents will continue to do exactly the same thing.

Very shaky start but overall a fun game. Hopefully gives the lads a bit of confidence but not sure we get to play an opponent like that all season in the PL now Ange has been sacked. Szobo in CM is now the 2nd name on the teamsheet after Virg. Play literally anyone else at RB #lfc

Jones has been significantly better than Mac in every single game this season. If he's on the bench for Brentford I may not be responsible for my actions #lfc

Hugo scored with his 14th shot. Isak now 16 shots without scoring. 5G from 3.3G tonight, clawing back some of that credit from the horror run but still 8G from 12xG in the last 5 games #lfc

Goals scored by opponents in the horror run: #lfc Palace: 1st shot Gala: 2nd shot Chelsea: 1st shot Man U: 1st shot Frankfurt: 1st shot

Frankfurt coach: "#LFC without the ball? Thats obvious." 👀 And then said his gameplan is to defend in numbers and counter very quickly... He's left his 2 normal forwards on the bench to have more pace in transition

Isak not scored with last 14 shots for club and country, Hugo last 13 shots... Team is 5.7 goals under XG in the 4 defeats (3G from 8.7xg) Lets see how much of that starts to get reversed tonight #lfc

So I took a look at all the data I could find that indicates "directness". Fair to say that opponents have significantly changed how they play #LFC this season. And while we continue to have bad outcomes in terms of goals conceded, opponents will continue to do exactly the same thing.

FINALLY a political message from the government that I'm ready to run through brick walls for me Repeat after me: Brexit was a clusterfuck Brexit was an omnishambles Brexit was the biggest act of self-harm in British history

% of PL matches spent in each Game State #LFC and #AFC last 2 seasons Arsenal virtually unchanged, #LFC 30% lower

Episode 6 of The Hack

Leaving aside the obvious that they can't afford to sack him, it's worth noting United's attack this season: Shots 1st SOT 2nd XG 1st Non-Pen XG 3rd NPXG/Shot 5th www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

open.substack.com/pub/dankenne... New substack post from me exploring #LFC's progression problems (warning ⚠️ contains nerdery)

open.substack.com/pub/dankenne... New substack post from me exploring #LFC's progression problems (warning ⚠️ contains nerdery)

One of those days PT2! Simliar first half issues with pass networks, different solutions and ending the wrong side of the most important outcome. The Chelsea Stats Pack: https://drbarts.quarto.pub/match-day-7-season-2526/ follow @anfieldindex.com for more content

Broadly agree with this Even in 22/23 #LFC were ostensibly only replacing one starter (Mane) and struggled. Most teams can manage 1-2 starter changes quite well. But 3, 4, 5 starter changes will take months, not weeks. Throw in the Jota situation and its even more challenging

Chelsea 2 : 1 Liverpool ▪ xG: 1.29 - 1.75 ▪ xThreat: 1.27 - 1.31 ▪ Possession: 52.7% - 47.3% ▪ Field Tilt: 59.8% - 40.2% ▪ Def Action Height: 41.9 - 41.4