In Liverpool’s 6-1 demolition of Watford on Sunday, the club featured five different goal scorers. Not exactly big news, but with Liverpool, this has been a theme this season. Liverpool has opted more for scoring by committee as opposed to having a typical striker there to finish chances. As a result, the club is at the top of the table three months into the season.
No team in England has scored more goals than Liverpool this season, yet not a single Liverpool player is in the top five goalscorer list. The two teams behind Liverpool are Chelsea and Manchester City. Both those clubs have the first and second top scorer in the league, respectively.
The Reds have made a habit this season of sharing the wealth. As seen against Watford with five different goal scorers, but also their four goals scored against Crystal Palace the previous week were all scored by different players.
Jürgen Klopp’s system rewards players who are opportunistic. Winning the ball quickly and attacking with speed doesn’t give much time for build up play, so usually the first one into a goal scoring position gets the goal. Most importantly, Liverpool plays with a lot of freedom. There is sort of an organized chaos to this style, and it has resulted in Liverpool playing fantastic football at times this year.
Liverpool has plenty of talented attackers and they seem to be developing a lot of chemistry. They’re also all relatively young, meaning Klopp’s desired work rate comes easily to them. They’re also having fun. Liverpool’s front three, Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane have combined for 18 goals this season in all competitions. They’ve developed a great chemistry that has helped them better adapt to Klopp’s system. Coupled with the freedom their manager gives them, they’ve had little trouble peppering opposing keepers.
[link_box id=”23195″ site_id=”158″ layout=”link-box-third” alignment=”alignright”]Sunday’s 6-1 victory is interesting for a few reasons, apart from the fact that five different players scored. It’s actually interesting when you realize that Liverpool is shooting the ball more and more. They fired 17 shots on target against Watford, and those 17 shots were from dangerous positions. What that means if not for a good day from Heurelho Gomes and then Costel Pantilimon after Gomes went down with a knee injury, it could have easily been much more than six.
However, what’s most interesting about Sunday’s win is what it means for the team’s potential as a title challenger. If you remember back in 2013-14, Liverpool came agonizingly close to a Premier League title. Luiz Suarez helped the Reds plow through Premier League defenses, as they scored four or more goals 11 times that year. The main difference now is they don’t have just one player doing most of the heavy lifting. In a way, that makes Liverpool a little harder to defend. While no one on the team now is in the same class as Suarez, the fact there are multiple players who are a goal threat diversifies things and presents a different challenge. Liverpool is on pace to score four or more goals 17 times, a massive improvement on the offense generated by Suarez.
That 2013-14 team had five different goal-scorers after 11 games. This year Liverpool have 10. No team in England have as many players on the scoresheet as the Merseyside team does. Incredibly, Daniel Sturridge is not part of the ten. That begs the question, will Liverpool find another gear if the England international can find his scoring touch, or does Klopp already have his attacking lineup? But, that’s a question for another day.
Liverpool fans won’t care who’s doing the scoring, as long as the ball is finding its way into the back of the net. Klopp, however, must be delighted to see so many players adapting to his attacking style. There are still questions about this team’s defensive record, as they’ve conceded more than any other top-four side, but a good offense can buy the German coach time to figure that out. If Klopp can find a way to keep out the goals at one end and keep scoring at the other, then Liverpool could run away with the league. If not, at least we’re in for a show.
