Craic On

Liverpool FC

Last night Liverpool drew 1-1 ay home with Rubin Kazan. They make a habit of scoring one goal and, as the defence don’t keep many clean sheets, they get a lot of 1-1 draws.

There’s continued disappointment amongst the fans, management, owners and players.

However scoring one goal a game should not come as any great surprise.

As ye sew, so shall ye reap.

The famous, or notorious, Transfer Panel, which included Brendan Rogers, have bought Liverpool a non-scoring team.

We looked at the career scoring records of the team that started last night against Rubin to see how many goals per game the players have got throughout their careers from Wikipedia.

Goals Per Game Table

Here are the results:-

Games   Goals  Gals Per Game   Player         Average Games Per Goal

259          6              0.023             Clyne                           43

492          27            0.055             Skrtel                          18

279          10            0.036             Sakho                          28

118            5             0.042            Moreno                        24

575          61            0.106             Milner                            9

272          12            0.044             Allen                             23

150          13            0.086             Can                                11

332          68            0.285            Lallana                           3.5

107          19             0.178            Origi                                5.6

231          33             0.143            Coutinho                         7

Total                       0.978                                                    1

So, the whole of the team who started last night, don’t even get a goal a game between them throughout their careers.

Messi, Ronaldo and Lewendowski average around a goal a game just by themselves.

Moneyball System

How has the noted Moneyball System supplied Liverpool with a team that doesn’t even get a goal a game on their career records.

Why is this a surprise that they scored just one goal last night? Surely it would have been more of a surprise if they scored more than this. The most likely number of goals that this team will get is one goal per game – exactly what they got last night.

The great Liverpool teams of the past used to get goals from every position, with even a decent amount coming from the full backs.

This team can only seem to get them from the specialised positions – and even there they have problems.

Coutinho Overrated?

Coutinho is the next superstar, supposedly, yet he has only got a goal avery seven games throughout his career.

He scores great, memorable goals but is certainly nowhere near the class, in terms of goals, of the likes of the front three at either Real Madrid or Barcelona or the front two at Bayern Munich.

If Barcelona, or Manchester City, came in with a Sterling-like offer for him, perps Liverpool should bite their hands off.

Scoring less Frequently

Also, some who have been bought recently have been scoring less since they came to Liverpool.

Lallana has a career average of a goal every 3.5 games but at Liverpool he doesn’t even get one every six games now.

There’s Origi, who has got a lowly goal per every 5.6 games in his career but who hasn’t scored at all in 4 games at Liverpool.

Balotelli has got a goal every 2.6 games in his career but was only scoring them at a rate of one every seven games for Liverpool.

However, we can see here that Liverpool get the number of goals per game that the Transfer Panel have reaped from their purchases.

Jurgen Klopp’s Inheritance

This is why Liverpool have a lot of shots on target in so many games yet get so few goals. Most of them can’t shoot and score only rarely.

This team can’t score goals, can’t make goals and can’t keep them out at the other end.

This is the legacy that Brendan Rogers and the transfer committee have left Jurgen Klopp.

In 2009 Liverpool were ranked first in Europe by UEFA. When Rogers took over they were 17th. When he left they were 54th.

They are asking Jurgen Klopp to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Good News for Liverpool

Is there any good news here?

Yes!

If you took out Origi, Coutinho and Allen and added Sturridge, Benteke and Firmino, you get almost three-quarters of a goal per game extra – based on their previous careers.

Sturridge has got a goal every 2.7 games in his career.

Benteke has got a goal every 2.3 games.

Firmino has got a goal every 3.4 games.

Between them they get a goal every 1.2 games.

Between them, Origi, Coutinho and Allen have got a goal every 3.7 games in their careers.

A team with the former three replacing the latter three have a career average of more than 1.7 goals per game.

However, will they be able to play Benteke, Sturridge and Firmino together in many games if Klopp plays with a single striker?

More Work to be Done

Liverpool are what they are and won’t be able to change people who have scored rarely in their careers into prolific, or even regular, goal scorers.

However, whet they don’t want to do is to go out and buy another eight new players in the next summer transfer window. They have tried that an it always leads t a poor start to eth season as players try to gel.

What they need to do, though, is, when they are looking to purchase players in any position, in the future, is to take into account of the goalscoring records of even the full backs.

Wouldn’t it be great to see Liverpool players, as of old, battering them in from all over the pitch?

The other good news is that Jurgen Klopp has come into other clubs is a similar position and turned the clubs around.

However, don’t expect him to turn a team of largely non-goal scorers, career wise, into a team of prolific goal scorers.

This is a major problem that he has been handed.

There’s no short term answer – except to get Sturridge, Benteke and Firmino into the team as often as possible and maybe use those players, in forward positions, who score so rarely, more sparsely.