With 26 goals in 11 games already this season, Liverpool’s new-look attack has been setting the Premier League alight, and one crazy statistic suggests there could be even more to come.
Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane will go down as one of the greatest forward trios the game has ever seen, but Liverpool have still managed to find solutions post-SMF.
Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota generally play on a rotational basis with Salah, and Liverpool are profiting massively.
So far this season, the Reds have a higher xG (expected goals) per 90, 2.59, than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues.
Expected goals are calculated based on the quality of chances so, in effect, this means Liverpool are producing more quality chances than any other side in Europe’s top divisions.
While xG is sometimes not the best tool to measure performances by – Everton are among Europe’s best this season, for example – it can provide a quick insight into how well a team are playing.
Although Liverpool lead the way in xG, they haven’t scored the most goals per 90. The early front runners in that respect are Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen side with 3.7 goals per game.
Leverkusen are currently top of the Bundesliga with six wins and a draw, against Bayern Munich, in their opening seven matches.
Of course, a team’s attackers couldn’t do anything without the players behind them, and Liverpool’s regenerated midfield are massively contributing to their output.
Last season, the Reds netted 1.97 goals per 90 in the Premier League, where as this campaign, Liverpool have 2.36 per 90 in all competitions.
While there may be a lack of defensive nous in the middle of the park at times, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai have proved themselves more than capable of playing defence-splitting passes.
Mac Allister is yet to score for the Reds, having played as a No. 6 for most of the campaign, but Szoboszlai has contributed with his screamer vs. Leicester in the League Cup.
Ryan Gravenberch is also beginning to come into his own, with one goal and two assists in his three starts so far.
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