Early shooting stats suggest that once Liverpool get going... they'll be formidable ⚽️🔥

Liverpool are underperforming... which can be potentially construed as good news early on.

Since having failed to break down an extremely stubborn Chelsea outfit down to ten men at Anfield in the second-half, fresh concerns have arisen over Liverpool’s goalscoring capabilities.

It has certainly exacerbated critique of the club’s lack of activity in the transfer window beyond Ibrahima Konate - whilst player sales and contract renewals have taken centre stage - with the forward line highlighted as an area in need of attention.

Given the prowess of Liverpool’s famous front-three combination of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and link-up man Roberto Firmino, it seems bizarre to poke holes in our options up top.

The sobering reality of our 2020/21 campaign highlighted a number of home truths, however, one of the starkest being the limitations of our backup attackers.

There’s certainly an argument to be made that the disruption to the team structure and mode of play - a direct result from the shifting of Fabinho into the backline and the loss of Virgil van Dijk’s penetrating crossfield passes - took its toll on our forwards.

That much was obvious just from Mane’s lead-doubling effort in the 2-0 victory against Burnley - a move started by (you guessed it!) an expertly taken Van Dijk diagonal to bypass the Clarets’ midfield. Two passes later and the Reds had added to the deficit separating them and Sean Dyche’s men.

Liverpool are, ultimately, a very intricate, clever machine with several key working parts; a level of complexity that can be something of a double-edged sword when injuries come into play.

Despite the panic over the frontline and the January period in which the club will be without Salah and Mane due to international commitments (African Cup of Nations), there are some early signs that may allay some fears when it comes to goals.

According to stats gathered by Instagram account ftblstats, Liverpool already appear to be the most formidable attacking outfit in the English top-flight thus far, taking 70 shots from their opening three games.

Only Manchester City (59), Wolverhampton Wanderers (57) and West Ham United (51) come close.

Despite this, Liverpool (6) find themselves joint-third in the scoring charts alongside Chelsea, with the Cityzens (10) and Hammers (10) leading, and Everton (7) and Manchester United (7) holding on to joint-second.

As such, without taking a deeper look into the stats, it suggests that the quality of Liverpool’s shots may not be as high as some of their league rivals.

Taking a look at xG, Liverpool are specifically the only side amongst those discussed to be underperforming, whilst sitting in third place for total xG over the course of the last three league fixtures.

While this may be seen as a concern, it suggests that the Merseysiders have potentially more to give over the course of an entire season.

They’ll have some work to do to catch up with Manchester City, of course, whose combined xG and xGA stats top the pile ahead of the Reds in third place.

It is early days, of course. And for what it’s worth, taking into account the difficulty of opposition faced (in terms of total goals relevant opponents conceded last term), Liverpool have hardly had the easiest start to the 2021/22 campaign.

If you can excuse the crude graph below, the collected stats suggest that Jurgen Klopp’s men had the 2nd toughest collection of opponents faced behind Manchester City.

Manchester City, having faced sides with a combined total of 120 conceded league goals last term, are evidently outperforming, as one might expect.

Should Liverpool manage to avoid any serious injuries that may compromise their style of play or sideline their in-form goalscorers, the early statistics suggest that the club has it in them to go the distance.

As we’ve already noted, it’s arguably too early to form definitive conclusions regarding how successful of a season Liverpool could have, but the early signs are encouraging.

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