Why Liverpool's defensive display against Leeds should not cause alarm
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| Reds supporters won’t want to be seeing their side concede three equalisers in a 4-3 win every week |
Liverpool played out one of the Premier League’s most entertaining opening games against Leeds United on Saturday evening.
A 4-3 win at Anfield may not have been the way that Jurgen Klopp planned to pick up three points on the opening day of the campaign and it certainly left a lot to unpack.
While neutrals watching the game would have loved seeing such an entertaining end-to-end game, Reds supporters won’t want to be seeing their side concede three equalisers in a 4-3 win every week.
With that in mind, there may be some concerns about Liverpool’s defensive line against Leeds given that they conceded three goals and often looked susceptible to Marcelo Bielsa’s unique style of attack.
Jack Harrison’s opener for the Whites saw him produce a fantastic piece of skill to beat Trent Alexander-Arnold before finishing well past Alisson. The Manchester City loanee’s strike was ultimately worth nothing in terms of picking up points but it at least showed Leeds’ quality going forward.
An uncharacteristic mistake by Virgil van Dijk for Patrick Bamford to make it 2-2 midway through the first half raised different question marks about Liverpool’s defence and perhaps some that haven’t been on the agenda before. A mix-up between the Dutch centre back and Alisson provided the opposition with a rare chance that has only been afforded on the rare occasion since his arrival to Anfield.
Matusz Klich’s equaliser to make it 3-3 in the 66th minute was similar to Harrison’s opener in regards to it being a good strike and one that commanded a very low Expected Goals (xG) value of 0.07 - as per data provider Infogol.
Conceding three goals at home on the opening day of the season doesn’t provide the greatest of confidence going forwards for the Reds. However, those numbers do need some context when it comes to Leeds’ overperformance in front of goal.
The Whites had just three shots on target during the game, all of which ended up going in, and boasted an incredibly low cumulative xG value of 0.26. What that essentially means is that Liverpool conceded very few high quality chances and, instead, Leeds took their slim chances well when they did arrive.
Advocates of xG and other statistical forecasting models will argue that Liverpool have very little to worry about over the course of a season on the basis of Saturday’s defensive performance.