Klopp’s Record With Subs And Late Goals

The Anfield Wrap’s Tuesday Review podcast. 22nd November. Bus home from work, about 5:30. Sean Rogers is talking about Jürgen Klopp’s lack of early substitutes in the 0-0 draw with Southampton.

“Hopefully Andrew Beasley can help us out… I’d love to know what his record was in Germany at late goals, goals in the last twenty minutes. We’ve talked about “I think, I know, and I hope”, and I think the problem with a substitution is unless it’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or David Fairclough, you’re always in the “hope”, whereas I think he can actually see and say “I know what is happening right now. I know that in the next five to ten minutes we are getting another chance. I trust you, keep calm, keep playing, stay positive, keep doing what we’re doing and banging on the door, and it’ll open”, and I think that’s the message he’s trying to get across, which is why I think he’s not doing the whole substitute thing. Now, if his time at Dortmund shows he didn’t do many subs and didn’t get many late goals, then on that basis maybe he needs to start changing his focus and tactics on that. If however, his time at Dortmund shows he’s got a lot of late goals, then why would you change something that’s been successful? There’s good logic with that”.

Challenge accepted, Sean!

Loris Karius: Stats Review

Liverpool have completed the signing of Loris Karius, a goalkeeper who plied his trade in the Bundesliga for Mainz. The first statistical tweet I saw regarding him came from Sam Jackson (Twitter) last week. You may or may not be familiar with Sam, but I saw him give an excellent presentation on goalkeepers at this year’s Opta Pro Forum (which you can watch here), and this was his initial reaction to the news:

Surprised at Liverpool apparently agreeing terms w/ Mainz keeper Loris Karius. Uncomfortable with crosses in 14/15!! pic.twitter.com/SZD5CBWjva

— Sam Jackson (@Sam_Jackson94) May 16, 2016

Oh. That’s not good. You can imagine Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce licking their lips at this news (sorry for the horrible image there). If Karius is struggling with crosses in a league where teams average 13.7 crosses per game (and no team averages more than 19 per match) and is coming to a league where the average is 20.9 per team per game (and only two teams average fewer than 19 per match) then he is going to be severely tested in one potential area of weakness in the Premier League.

So far, so Mignolet. The Belgian trades on his ‘decent shot stopper’ reputation, but how does Karius compare? Fear not, Reds fans, this is where the good news starts.

Comparing Liverpool’s Set Piece Record with Dortmund’s

Jürgen Klopp has taken just one point from his two league games at Anfield so far, and this is mainly due to conceding a late set piece goal in both matches. I thought it would therefore be interesting to see how Dortmund fared with dead ball situations to see if we can expect any change to his fortunes with Liverpool.

Jürgen Klopp: Análisis de estadísticas del Dortmund

Something new for the site – my articles translated into Spanish. James Hillyard (who you can find on Twitter here) is a freelance translator and Liverpool fan, and he approached me and asked if he could do this, and who was I to say no?! There will be more of these in due course, and all feedback will be gratefully received. If you’d like to read the English version of this article, it can be found here.

Ahora que Jürgen Klopp ha sido confirmado como D.T. de Liverpool, es tiempo de ver algunas estadísticas de su tiempo en Dortmund, para ver si sus equipos que ganaron campeonatos allí eran realmente así de buenos, o si su equipo en su última temporada era, realmente, así de malo.

Roberto Firmino: 2014/15 Stats Review

There’s no doubt who Liverpool’s most highly rated signing so far this summer is; Hoffenheim’s Brazilian attacker Roberto Firmino. As is customary around here, I’ve taken a look at his stats from last season to see what we can learn about him, and what he might contribute in the Premier League next season.