Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Wolves leaves them 10th in the Premier League table, with serious concerns over where they will finish by the end of the season.
Such a low spot in the standings can sometimes be forgiven early in the campaign when the team are still finding their feet.
But having now played 20 league matches in 2022/23, Jurgen Klopp‘s side have accumulated just 29 points, with eight wins, five draws and seven defeats.
Projected over the entire 38-game season, Liverpool are on course for their third-worst finish in Premier League history, with 55.
So with more than half of their matches played, what do Liverpool now need to ensure that they don’t fall to their worst-ever Premier League finish?
The fewest amount of points Liverpool have ever managed in a Premier League season was 52 in 2011/12, when they ended up finishing eighth in the table.
Kenny Dalglish was in charge during that campaign, and there was at least some success in the cup competitions, with Liverpool crowned League Cup winners in the same season.
This term, the Reds have already been dumped out of the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup.
In order to ensure they avoid a league points tally worse than the one they managed in 2011/12, Klopp’s side need another 23 points from their 18 remaining league matches this season.
That is an average of 1.28 points per game; the equivalent of seven wins and two draws.
While some supporters will be wondering where Liverpool’s next league victory will come from, you would certainly hope they will have enough in the tank to avoid setting such an unwanted record.
Fifty-two points would have been enough to secure an eighth or ninth-placed finish last season, but only a 12th-placed finish in 2020/21.
And with nine teams currently above Liverpool, and eight of those already within 20 points of reaching 52, such a low total would leave them in serious danger of finishing in the bottom half.
As things stand, Liverpool are projected to finish on 55 points, which would go down as the third-worst tally.
If all 20 Premier League teams’ points are extrapolated over 38 games, 55 points would leave the Reds in ninth.
The club’s second-worst points tally came in the 1998/99 season, when they only managed 54 points to finish seventh, while the Reds could only manage 58 in 2010/11 and 2004/05.
Remarkably, 58 points in the latter season was enough to guide Liverpool to fifth, while 60 points in 2003/04 was enough for fourth, which shows how the standard of the English top flight has developed in the last 20 years.
In terms of table rankings, the lowest Liverpool have ever finished in the Premier League is eighth, which occurred in 1993/94, 2011/12 and 2015/16.
Klopp and his team certainly have the time and the games to ensure that they don’t fall to such an embarrassing league finish, but it really is a world away from where the Reds were this time last season.
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