12 sorry Liverpool stats that sum up their catastrophic 2022-23 campaign

Liverpool’s collapse in the 2022-23 season so far has been hard to fathom.

Last season Jurgen Klopp’s side were a couple of fine margins off becoming the first side in the history of English football to complete a quadruple. They went toe-to-toe against Pep Guardiola’s Man City in the title race, falling just short with a brilliant tally of 92 points.

They’ve been almost unrecognisable this season. They were poor prior to the World Cup but have plumbed new depths since the campaign resumed, exiting the League Cup and FA Cup and looking almost certain to finish outside the Champions League qualification places in the league.

On current form, they look unlikely to even qualify for any European competition. Saturday’s shocking 3-0 defeat to Wolves was arguably their worst result yet.

“We have to change it immediately in the next game. Everton won today and they are in a good moment so we have to prove a point again,” Klopp said following the loss at Molineux.

“For the moment, I’m so disappointed and angry about the first 15 minutes, I can’t find the words for it. Then we have chances we should score. It could have been 2-1 and that would have changed everything I’m sure. Wolves deserve the three points.

“We cannot go through that season that nobody did before but how long do we want to suffer? It is one explanation in general yes, but not for the first 15 minutes here today. What we make of it in this moment is absolutely not OK.”

Here are 12 statistics that sum up what a terrible season Liverpool are having.

– Liverpool have lost three successive Premier League away matches for the first time in over a decade. The last time was in February-March 2012, when they lost six times in seven matches under Kenny Dalglish.

– Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Wolves saw them concede twice in the opening 12 minutes. It’s the earliest that they’ve gone two goals behind in a league match since 2014. They’ve also conceded the most goals of any Premier League side in the first five minutes of matches this season.

–  The club’s top scorer since the World Cup break is Leicester centre-half Wout Faes, who scored two own goals in Liverpool’s 2-1 win in December. No Liverpool player has scored more than one Premier League goal in the six matches since the season resumed.

– Liverpool are 13th in the Premier League table since the World Cup and rock bottom of the league table in 2023 to date.

– Klopp’s Reds have taken just one point from 12 available this calendar year so far. They have the worst defensive record in the league (nine goals conceded) and worst goal difference (-8) of 2023 so far. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is their only Premier League goalscorer since New Year’s Day.

– Last season, Liverpool lost just four matches from 63 in all competitions. They’ve already lost more than twice that in 2022-23 so far (10 in 32).

– Liverpool are averaging 1.45 points per game in the Premier League this season. Extrapolated over a full season that would be 55 points. Only twice in the Premier League era (1998-99, 2011-12) have they picked up fewer points.

– This is Liverpool’s worst points tally at this stage of a season since 2010-11, when Roy Hodgson was in charge. Hodgson’s Liverpool had picked up 25 points from 20 games when he left his post – just four fewer than Liverpool have mustered in 2022-23 so far. During the 2020-21 season, when Liverpool lost Virgil van Dijk and suffered a defensive injury crisis, they had eight more points at this stage of the campaign than they currently do.

– Mohamed Salah is averaging a goal every 254 minutes in the Premier League this season. That’s by a distance his worst return since arriving at Anfield in 2017.

𝟐𝟐/𝟐𝟑 – 𝟐𝟓𝟒 ⏬️
21/22 – 120
20/21 – 140
19/20 – 152
18/19 – 148

Mohamed Salah’s drop off in form compared to the previous five seasons. 📉 pic.twitter.com/ZtzMRRFHwZ

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) February 7, 2023

– In the entire 2018-19 and 2019-20 campaigns combined, Liverpool lost just four matches and dropped just 32 points. Just 20 matches into the 2022-23 season, they’ve lost seven matches and dropped 31 points.

– The underlying numbers aren’t quite so severe. They register joint-fifth (level with Brighton) for expected goal difference (+6.2xG) and third for expected goals (35.4xG). Their finishing is costing them.

– Only four players in Europe’s top five leagues are underperforming their non-penalty expected goals (xG) more than Darwin Nunez – the Uruguayan has registered 8.1npxG but scored just five league goals. Via FBref.

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