Liverpool are a man down this season! Arne Slot has no answer

Liverpool are playing a man down this season. Arne Slot unfortunately has no way to fix it.

Liverpool aren't the team that they were last season. That much is obvious as they're battling for 5th spot instead of competing for the Premier League title.

In fact, the team of last season was running away with that title by this stage. The summer simply altered things too much, with incomings and outgoings having a major effect.

That was inevitable, given the names involved and the money spent. Though, most thought those changes would have a major positive effect, instead of what we're seeing now.

Look into the numbers, though, and you can see what went wrong. Liverpool are essentially a man down on where they were last season and Arne Slot has no good way to fix it.

Liverpool's creative force

Liverpool do not create the same kind of chances as last season. While a lot of the numbers might be the same, the mix of quality and quantity is off in this campaign.

But one look at the data shows why. They're essentially a player down when it comes to creating chances - and that's always going to have an effect.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was a creative force for Liverpool last season (and the seasons before that). Even if he didn't create in a given match, his presence forced teams to worry about him.

His expected assists for last season - as in, the expected number of assists per 90 minutes you'd expect a player to have given the chances they've created - was 0.28 per 90. That topped the chart for Liverpool, with Mo Salah second on 0.24.

Salah now tops that list for the Reds but his numbers have gone down to 0.21 per 90.

But look at it this way: 5th-place last season was Cody Gakpo with 0.17. 5th-place this season is Curtis Jones with 0.17. The average output hasn't shifted all that much, then.

The real problem is that above 5th, the only real difference is that Liverpool swapped 0.28 from Alexander-Arnold for 0.2 from Florian Wirtz. That's a significant difference.

That missing 0.8, were it an individual player, would crack the Reds' top 10, sitting between Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister this season. It highlights the level of missing creativity as Liverpool failed to adequately replace Alexander-Arnold.

Now, the hope is that Wirtz's form continues to develop positively and that he can move closer to that 0.28 figure without taking away from anyone else. Do that and Liverpool will be vaguely back to where they were.

Because they're currently operating a man down on last season. When it comes to their creative output, anyway.

All data from Fotmob.

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