Liverpool are now halfway through their Premier League season, but I’m sorry if you think we’re much deeper into the 2022/23 season.
Nineteen league games have gone on and on, and to call it a roller coaster would be an understatement, given the expectations that preceded the first whistle at Fulham.
Jurgen Klopp’s team is a shadow of themselves, more than 18 points behind the pace after 19 games, so the focus has shifted to getting into the top four.
For some, this will be optimistic at best, but there are still 57 points that can be scored, and the Reds’ season can be saved if they start to get in shape. Pronto.
We don’t need to tell you that the Reds’ record is lower than last season, but how does it look compared to Klopp’s previous campaigns at the helm?
This season compared to the previous 7
The average number of Liverpool points after 19 games since the 2015/16 season is 41.7, and as we all know, this time the Reds are not approaching the average.
The Reds scored 29 points in the first half of this campaign, which is 12.7 less than the average over the past seven seasons. The decline was rapid.
The last time they achieved the same low result was in the 2015/16 season, when they scored 30 points, and in the 2020/21 and 2017/18 seasons they are not far behind by 35 points.
This is a new low for Klopp, one point worse than when he took charge of the club after the eighth round in October 2015.
In fact, the last time Liverpool failed to score 30 points after 19 games was in the 2014/15 season, when Brendan Rodgers scored just 28 points.
If the same thing happens again in the next 19?
If Liverpool had repeated their form in the first half of the season until May, what would it have given them?
Klopp’s team have lost points more often than not, losing six times and drawing five times to see 28 points disappear.
If the same trajectory is repeated in the second half of the campaign, Liverpool will finish the season with 58 points — a whopping 34 points less than last season.
This is a number that would guarantee any kind of European football twice in the last four Premier League campaigns.
The lowest position obtained with 58 points from the 2018/19 season was 11th (2020/21), and the highest achievable finish was sixth (2021/22).
- 29 points after 19 games is the lowest figure since the 2015/16 season.
- On average, 12.7 points less than Klopp at the halfway point
- If the same thing happens again, Liverpool will finish the 2022/23 season with 58 points.
- In two of the last four seasons, 58 has been enough for European football.
The last time the season ended with a score of less than 58 was in the 2011/12 season under the leadership of Kenny Dalglish, who scored only 52 points out of 114 available.
That leaves Klopp and his team with a lot of work to do if they want to surpass their results in the first half of the season and more than double their points by May.
Under the German’s leadership, Liverpool have more than doubled the number of points on three different occasions, 2021/22: 44 points against 92; 2020/21: from 34 to 69; and 2017/18: from 35 to 75.
It’s safe to say there’s plenty of room for improvement to add this season to that list, but Liverpool will have to get in shape in a hurry.
