The 14 stats that sum up Liverpool's shocking 22-23 season

Liverpool have endured an underwhelming start to the 2022-23 season and we've collected some stats that sum up their current malaise.

It only seems like yesterday that the Reds were in pursuit of an unprecedented quadruple with some of Europe’s best performers strutting their stuff on a weekly basis.

But now, in the autumn of 2022, Jurgen Klopp's side are languishing in mid-table after winning just two of their opening eight Premier League matches.

Following their 3-2 defeat at Arsenal, Klopp conceded that his side are already out of the title race. Speaking to the press, the Liverpool boss said: “Yeah, [we’re] not in the title race. Imagine if I would sit here and think we are nearly there.

“Of course, in a situation like ours, we play Arsenal, now we play Rangers obviously and then we play Man City, is that the perfect opponent for finding confidence back? Probably not!

“If you are winning, there are five million things we could talk about, ‘He’s great, he’s great and he’s super, and the goals were outstanding.’

“Losing is always the same, the conversations are a bit rustier. I cannot change that, I couldn’t be bothered about it, to be honest. But what you build with your hand you knock down with your backside, that’s not helpful and that’s what we did.”

We’ve identified 14 stats that summarise Liverpool's current malaise. 

- With 10 points from eight games so far, this is Liverpool’s worst return at this stage of a Premier League campaign since 2012-13 (9 points), when they ultimately finished seventh.

- For a point of comparison, Liverpool achieved 17 points (2020-21) and 18 points (2021-22) in their first eight games of the previous two campaigns.

- Conceding the first goal has become an increasingly pertinent problem for Klopp’s Reds. They’ve fallen behind in 10 of their last 12 matches (83.3%) as opposed to just twice in the 12 games previous to this.

- Liverpool’s success over recent years has been built on a water-tight defence, but they’ve only kept two clean sheets in their previous 12 matches compared to 10 in the dozen preceding games.

- In Liverpool’s last 12 matches, they’ve conceded 16 goals. They conceded three in their 12 previous games.

- The Reds trailed at half-time against Arsenal thanks to goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. If matches ended after 45 minutes, Liverpool would currently be bottom of the Premier League with just four points to their name.

- Arsenal had 46 touches in Liverpool’s box on Sunday – more than they had in the previous five Premier League meetings combined (44)

- Liverpool have only allowed their opponents more touches in their box in one previous PL game under Klopp – 48 against Manchester City in November 2019.

- Since beating Bournemouth 9-0 on August 27, Liverpool’s joint record victory, they’ve earned only five Premier League points whereas Bournemouth have gained nine over the same period.

- Mohamed Salah has scored just six league goals from open play since returning from the African Cup of Nations in February. And that's not the only concerning statistic related to Liverpool's most reliable goalscorer...

- The form of Trent Alexander-Arnold has come under heavy scrutiny this season. After being substituted at half-time at Arsenal, Alexander-Arnold’s average match rating of The Liverpool Echo, the i, WhoScored, FotMob and This Is Anfield readers was a measly 4.6 out of 10.

- Virgil van Dijk received a rating of 5.4 after another lethargic showing. Ian Doyle of The Liverpool Echo wrote the Dutchman was “conspicuously absent” for Saka’s first goal.

- In the past two seasons, Van Dijk has only had to make 0.5 and 0.6 tackles per game but already this season has made 0.9 tackles in each game.

- Similarly, he was only made to make 1 and 0.9 interceptions per game in the 2020-21 and 21-22 seasons, respectively, but is already at 1.4 in the current campaign.