Liverpool news and analysis: Why have Liverpool stopped scoring this season?

Stuck in tenth 

When it comes to the Merseyside derby, Liverpool very rarely have much to fear from their cross-city rivals Everton. Although the Toffees are one of English football’s most historic clubs, the blue side of Merseyside rarely manages to crawl out from beneath the shadow of their more successful rivals. Which is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that Everton have only won the derby twice in the past 13 years. 

However, when the two Premier League giants lock horns on Monday evening, Liverpool and the rest of English football may be in for something of a surprise. Everton look like a team reborn under new manager Sean Dyche and may well fancy their chances against Jürgen Klopp’s out-of-form Reds. It’s a match that could certainly go either way. Which goes some way to explaining just how much trouble Liverpool currently find themselves in. 

Indeed, Klopp’s team currently find themselves languishing in tenth place in the English top flight, with just four wins, one draw and five defeats from their last 10 games. And in many ways, the club’s problems can perhaps be summed up by the fact that they simply can’t score goals like they used to. Last season, Liverpool averaged 2.5 goals per game and finished the campaign with 94 goals – just five fewer than Manchester City. This time around, they’re averaging just 1.8 goals per game and currently sit 19 goals behind Pep Guardiola’s side. 

The Mohamed Salah predicament – Liverpool lack goalscorers and playmakers 

Perhaps the best way of figuring out what’s going wrong at Liverpool may be to look at Mohamed Salah’s performances for the club this season. Although the Egyptian international is the club’s top goalscorer with seven goals in 20 league games, that’s significantly short of the 23 goals he bagged last season. And there are a few reasons for that. Perhaps the most obvious one is the striking demise of Trent Alexander-Arnold as an attacking full-back and Klopp’s most potent playmaker. Last season the England international averaged 0.37 assists per 90 in the English top flight. This season, that number has dropped to 0.06. And that’s clearly had a huge impact on Salah, who benefited directly from two of 12 assists last season and undoubtedly from many more indirectly. 

However, Alexander-Arnold wasn’t the only source of Salah’s goals last season. Alongside the English defender, Salah also benefited from five assists from fellow forwards Sadio Mané and Diogo Jota, who also happened to be Liverpool’s second and third highest goalscorers for the club in the league last season with 31 goals and 10 assists between them. Yet, as Liverpool fans will know all too well, Mané was sold in the summer to Bayern Munich and Jota has been injured for almost the entirety of the current campaign. And the players tasked with replacing the dynamic duo – Luis Díaz, Roberto Firmino and €80 million signing Darwin Núñez – have bagged just 15 goals and seven assists between them this season. When we break that down to goal contributions per 90 between last season’s duo and this season’s trio, it works out at 0.69 and 0.78 respectively. Which is saying quite a lot, considering this season’s numbers consider an extra player. 

To Klopp’s credit, he may have tried to fix this problem with the signing of Cody Gakpo in the January transfer window, who can certainly create goals as well as he can score them. But the young Dutch talent has yet to get going at Anfield and is certainly in no position to replace the likes of Mané or Jota yet. Especially while other expensive signings like Díaz and Núñez continue to struggle on the pitch. 

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