On paper it looks pretty horrendous.

Played five, conceded 15.

Quite a damning statistic in isolation, but, as the saying goes, “….there are lies, there are damned lies, and there are statistics”. Nevertheless, it’s a stat that taken out of context appears quite worrying for us.

I could bang on for several thousand words now about the lazy and misleading use of stats by pressurised hacks with agendas to pursue, but it’s enough simply to say that statistics are designed to show trends within groups and are irrelevant when they’re applied to individuals (it gets more interesting from now on I swear…!). They tell you nothing of the bigger picture in a game/season; how good the opposition were, what the weather was like, how fit the player and his teammates were, whether he was playing in a favoured position, whether the opposition had man-marked him etc., all of these things have a massive impact on stats and yet all we get is “player 1 completed X number of passes whereas player 2 created less. Player 1 is clearly better.”

Damien Comolli uses stats to identify potentially valuable players who can improve the team but he doesn’t trust them over extensive scouting reports and observations, rather he uses them as a start point when looking for new signings. In the same way we have to be careful not to read too much into our friendly results so far without looking at the reasons for our seemingly disastrous form. That’s what I’ll do then.

1) Line-up.

Look at the various combinations we’ve fielded so far and it’s clear that we haven’t been able to put out anywhere near our first choice line-up yet. Agger, Reina and Johnson for example are well off the pace having only started the season yesterday, Lucas and Suarez haven’t come back from holiday yet, our big signings Henderson, Downing and Adam are still settling in after only a few minutes together on the pitch, several other important first teamers haven’t played much, not to mention the youngsters thrown in for a bit of experience and the expendable players with huge ‘For Sale’ signs round their necks. Just go and look at our first choice line up last season, it was very different to all the teams we’ve put out so far.

2) Coaching setup.

Sammy Lee left the club just over a month ago and in his place came Steve Keen, a vastly experienced coach but one who will bring different methods and approaches to training. It’s bound to take a few weeks for the players to adjust and especially so given the points made above about the inconsistency of the line-up.

Continue reading to page 2 of post

16 responses to “Four Reasons not to worry about Liverpool’s 15 conceded goals in 5 games”

  1. bgc 689 says:

    we are losing to a reserve team which is 10th in the norwegian league

  2. Andrew says:

    Bcg, what’s your point? Its a pre season game so who gives a toss? Its all about fitness and gwlling. Its not about champagne football in preseason. Expect Liverpool to win competative games, not fitness warmups. Gain some perspective man.

  3. jay says:

    If you was to play football in ANY league from the Sunday leagues in your town or the premier league u would know that the amount of effort and intensity involved in a friendly compared to a competitive game is on a different level wich tells me there really is no need to read into these results and just hang fire for the season to start all will be sweeeet

  4. robbie says:

    Hey, yhe top four teams dont concede so much in preseason. And their sdo not look so average.

  5. Chips says:

    It would be good to show some consistency now, build a winning mentality. However, in all fairness, a whole lot of diff players and diff combinations were being tried. The players also do not want to pick up injuries with preseason warm ups. I think the Valencia game should start to shape up the team as we fine tune. The weaknesses shown so far are not tobe ignored but sorted immediately! Its good they were exposed during preseason, thats the whole point of a preseason. Lets continue to work hard and improve.

  6. jay says:

    Pre season means little especially stats from pre season , if u look at it like that Bolton will shine this year n last year ngog would of scored a bag full of goals but he didn’t n I can’t see. Boltons results carrying on through out the season ,

  7. Darren says:

    You took the words right out of my mouth! Excellent post! Nothing further to add ha

  8. jack says:

    ehhhh, how will suarez play against sunderland?hes going to be rested….plus id question miereles too as he has a bruised foot…but anyhow.

  9. nomad says:

    Totally correct.

  10. jay says:

    All I know is il looking foward to the season and can’t wait to see the starting line up against sunderland, come on LIVERPOOL !!!

  11. Paul says:

    And one reason to worry.

    # It was your first choice back four last night against a very very mediocre team from Norway.

  12. Loverpool says:

    There’s no way I’d play Adam over Lucas. Agger is great going forward but his defence is hit and miss. It would be interesting to see him play left back. Carrol…he makes me so nervous. I have no faith in him whatsoever. Maybe in the future as a sub when we need to change up the play but as our main striker it’s embarrassing. Forgoet the price tag as that was politics, he needs to at best play BEHIND Suarez or Kuyt but that would mean they’re stuck up front. Carrol is just a waste of a player. I’d rather player Suarez with Kuyt, or even Miereles or Maxi up front, as they’re agile and not 1 dimensional and it will reduce all those fucking long ball from the back or side that fucking go nowhere at best hitting him in the side of his head.

  13. bgc 689 says:

    We were 6th last season because of suarez and not kk alone. he was our best player so i believe the new team should be build to complement suarez and not carrol and he gets injured alot.

  14. Darren says:

    Can’t wait to see the posts when carroll finishes the season with 20 plus goals! Were not building a team around carroll were building a team that complements each other! Carroll not only scored goals at newcastle he created many chances for others especially nolan! Can’t wait to see saurez and gerrard getting on the end of them! Plus to say he is one dimensional is quiet a statement to make! He can make his own chances out of nothing! Goals against city and the one he scored against us for newcastle can back that up! The goal he scored for England was finished in style too and that came from a fantastic team move! Also he can be a target man. It sometime works well to knock a long ball up when everything else fails and there ain’t many better or taller in the league! ANDY CARROLL IS AWESOME!!

  15. nomad says:

    Comment by Paul

    2011-08-02 21:43:36

    And one reason to worry.

    # It was your first choice back four last night against a very very mediocre team from Norway.
    As you follow “our” team so intently,any chance you can give us your assessment?Things like the last time that back four played together,what stage each player was regarding injury recovery,fitness etc.Maybe you could move on then to the midfield,it’s new componants,new training staff,new methods,tactics,players missing,the usual info for an assessment that’s worth taking any notice of.That’s if you actually watched the game on either of “our” Liverpool outlets and aren’t the usual sit and snipe ill informed armchair supporter of “your” team.I’ve watched the game 3 times now so it will be interesting to see your indepth take.

  16. bole says:

    hahahahahaa what a stupid post,Suarez not even started pre season and Meireles is injured,I guarente this will be line up:
    Reina
    Kelly,Carra,Agger,Johnson

    Adam,Henderson,Lucas(or Spearing)

    Downing Kuyt

    Carroll

    and we will lose 3:1