Cliff Notes – Liverpool in crisis: The stats behind the champions’ losing streak
- Liverpool’s recent four-match losing streak marks the first time manager Arne Slot has faced significant challenges since joining in 2024, raising concerns over the club’s summer spending of £400 million.
- Mohamed Salah’s form has sharply declined, with only three goals and three assists in 11 games, contrasting with his prolific performance last season where he won the Golden Boot.
- Despite creating 20 chances this season, Florian Wirtz has yet to register a goal or assist, highlighting Liverpool’s struggles with finishing and contributing to their current crisis.
Liverpool in crisis: The stats behind the champions’ losing streak
For the first time since his arrival at the club in the summer of 2024, Arne Slot is getting a taste of what being in charge of the Premier League’s crisis club is like.
The nature of a top-flight season means almost every club takes their turn at some point in the running. But the Dutchman’s record remained remarkably unblemished in his first year in charge as Liverpool cruised to the title having suffered just four defeats along the way.
However, eight games into the new season, a nightmare run of consecutive defeats has left Liverpool just one short of matching that number.
A previously unthinkable defeat at the hands of Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday once again brought to light issues that have plagued Slot’s side throughout their title defence, leading to intense scrutiny of their summer spending spree.
The downturn in results has come after Liverpool made a flying start to the new campaign as they won their first five games.
Bournemouth, Newcastle United, Arsenal, Burnley and local rivals Everton were all dispatched, with a Champions League win over Atlético Madrid and a Carabao Cup victory against Southampton stretching the run to seven games in all competitions.
Coming on the heels of the £400 million ($534.96m) spent in deals for Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong, it appeared a repeat of last season’s dominant form was inevitable.
There were warning signs, though. All bar the Everton win came via goals in the 83rd minute or later, while Liverpool let a two-goal lead slip on three separate occasions before beating Bournemouth 4-2 and both Newcastle and Atlético 3-2.
And the tables were soon turned, with Crystal Palace surviving Federico Chiesa’s 87th-minute equaliser to grab a 2-1 win through Eddie Nketiah’s stoppage-time goal.
Galatasaray won 1-0 in the Champions League before Liverpool conceded a stoppage-time winner for the second Premier League game in succession, Estêvão earning Chelsea the three points.
Harry Maguire’s 84th-minute header for United made it four defeats in a row in all competitions.
When did Liverpool last lose four in a row?Brendan Rodgers was the last Liverpool manager to lose four matches in a row. John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Neither Slot nor his long-serving predecessor Jürgen Klopp had previously experienced a four-match losing run with Liverpool.
The last time the club suffered such a fate was in November 2014, when Brendan Rodgers’ side lost 1-0 to Newcastle in the Premier League and Real Madrid in the Champions League, 2-1 to Chelsea and 3-1 to Palace.
They went on to draw their next game 2-2 with Bulgarian side Ludogorets before getting back to winning ways thanks to full-back Glen Johnson’s late header against Stoke.
Klopp did once lose four successive league games, against Brighton, Manchester City, Leicester and Everton in February 2021, but a Champions League win over RB Leipzig interrupted that sequence.
Has anyone seen Mo Salah?Mohamed Salah has so far struggled to replicate the extraordinary form he showed last season. Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Mohamed Salah’s form is another cause for concern, with the Egyptian blasting wide from a good second-half chance against United.
Salah won the Premier League Golden Boot by six clear goals last season with 29 and topped the assists chart by the same margin, finishing with a total of 34 goals and 23 assists in 52 appearances across all competitions.
This time around he has three goals and three assists in 11 games. He has not scored since Sept. 17’s win over Atlético, with his last assist coming against Everton three days later.
Isak was second to Salah in last season’s top-flight scoring chart with Newcastle, while Wirtz reached double figures for goals and assists in the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen.
But the pair have combined for one goal and two assists in 18 appearances in all competitions this term, trailing midfield anchor Ryan Gravenberch’s two goals and two assists in nine games.
If you dig a little deeper in Salah’s struggles, it’s clear to see why Liverpool are struggling.
During Liverpool’s four-game losing streak, Salah has averaged less than one shot per game with a previously unfathomable 0 successful dribbles past an opponent. Compare that to last season when he averaged 3.2 shots per game and 1.3 dribbles as he scooped a host of individual awards.
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Is Wirtz the unluckiest player in the Premier League?Florian Wirtz is still searching for his breakthrough moment in a Liverpool shirt. James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
Liverpool beat off competition from the biggest clubs in Europe to land the Germany star a year after he inspired Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen to an unprecedented Bundesliga title.
The zeros in his goals and assists columns so far this season mean he has shouldered plenty of the blame after Liverpool’s downturn in results.
But there’s an argument to be made that Wirtz has actually been one of the most creative players in England — it’s just that his teammates never do anything with it.
Only two players — Bruno Fernandes and Cody Gakpo — can better the 20 chances he has created across 10 Premier League and Champions League games. There are 18 players who have created at least 14 chances across both competitions, and of those only two have failed to register a goal contribution — Wirtz and Newcastle right-back Kieran Trippier.
Three Liverpool players make up the list of the Premier League’s worst offenders for missing big chances this season — Isak (4), Ekitike (5), Salah (6). Of those 10, Isak is one of two players who have not scored a goal off a big chance created, the other being the perennial xG underperformer, Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
While his wayward finishing means Wirtz has failed to match the 1.39 xG he has amassed so far, the 2.27 xA mean you could forgive him if you caught him side-eyeing his colleagues in team meetings.
Information from PA and ESPN’s Global Sports Research contributed to this story.
