Stat Attack – AFCB v Liverpool

Written by Matt Stevenson

Here’s the xG which favours Liverpool, although not by much if the penalty hadn’t been given, prompted by VAR. The first 25 minutes were even, Liverpool dominating possession and carving out one chance from a corner where Lerma was alert to get back onto the line to head away a van Dijk header (rated 1 in 3). We had a break away with Ouattara through against Allison, a heavy touch as he went around him took the change away, although the algorithm rated it as 1 in 2. On 28 minutes we took the lead. A quick counter attack, Neto’s ball to Smith and Smith’s pass with the outside of his foot set Ouattara free who powered past Van Dijk to cross for Billing to stroke home (1 in 2). Liverpool only had one more chance before the break. A header from Van Dijk, which he put wide (1 in 3) very similar to a miss when Nottm Forest beat Liverpool. We probably expected an onslaught in the second half, but Liverpool were strangely muted. They only had two big chances in the entire 45 minutes, both essentially in the same incident. Jota heading a chance (1in 4) into Smith’s outstretched arm having jumped. It is arguable whether he raised his arm on the way down, but when the referee went to the monitor we all knew what to expect. This leaves only one team without a penalty award in the Premier League. Salah blazed wide (4 in 5) and then Liverpool created nothing until injury time, both from Gakpo, and minor chances.

O.Dango

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Billing

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Lerma

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Neto

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Senesi

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Anthony

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Rothwell

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Kelly

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Someone else

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There’s been a lot of debate about the formation (and best formations) on different threads. The average positions show a back four, with almost a narrow bank of six (in two clumps of three). There looked to be lots of space behind Smith (15) although Liverpool didn’t exploit this, and where Man City had found the gap behind Zemura, the pace of Kelly (5) was key to preventing too much going down this wing, which is sterling work given he was up against Salah and Alexander-Arnold. Both wingers (Ouattara 11 and Anthony 32) were helping defensively which could explain their relative depth being level with Rothwell (14) and Lerma (8). In terms of substitutions, we didn’t overly retreat – Mepham was stripped to come on, but didn’t, which was interesting – we tried to protect the lead but were still trying to counter attack. Christie (10) came on for Billing (29) who had been booked. On 80 minutes, Lerma (8) was replaced by Cook (4) had Fredericks (2) for an injured Smith (15) with both sitting deeper. With 2 minutes to go, Semenyo (24) came on for Solanke (9) and Vina (18) replaced Anthony (32) the latter being the most defensive substitution of the 5.

Senesi had the most touches (52), followed by 4 players with 45 or more touches: Kelly; Lerma; Anthony and Billing. Anthony and Billing had the most touches in Liverpool’s half (26 and 25 respectively) with both having 19 touches in the final third, with Ouattara having 15. We had 12 touches in the opposition’s penalty area, Ouattara and Solanke with 3 each.

Senesi attempted the most passes with 38, followed by Lerma who made 32 in the 80 minutes he played. Individual completion rates were improved against Arsenal with only Neto, Ouattara and Smith below 60% Given all three were involved in the goal, we can let this go. Rothwell and Anthony had the highest completion rates of the starts (83%).

AFCB attempted 11 crosses, being successful with 3, with one of these being the assist for the goal.

Our players tried to take on a man 37 times, being successful 18 times, which was a big improvement compared with the Arsenal game. Ouattara led the way with 5 successful take-ons (from 7 attempts) with one of these leading to the goal.

We created 3 chances including 2 big chances (Billing’s goal and Ouattara’s chance). Liverpool created 7 chances, with 3 big (the 3 headers from Van Dijk and Jota).

We had 5 attempts (2 big) noting that chances can be provided after saves or a defensive error and not created, hitting the target twice. Liverpool had 15 attempts, 4 big, and hit the target 5 times.

AFCB won 17 of 31 aerials duals. Ouattara won 6 from 10, a complete contrast to Arsenal where he only won 1 from 9. Solanke only won 1 from 6 although he was up against Van Dijk.

Billing made most tackles (4) in his 70 minutes winning 2. Senesi and Stephens both won 2 out of 2. As a team, Bournemouth won 11 of 18 tackles.

Lerma and Kelly had the most defensive actions with 14. Lerma made the most interceptions, Lerma and Neto were joint-top for recoveries, Senesi made the most clearances and Kelly made our only block in the game.

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