Arne Slot has all but perfected the trickiest of balancing acts in first half-season at Liverpool | OneFootball

After thrashing West Ham 5-0 on Sunday, Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to eight points with a game in hand on second-placed Nottingham Forest.

Those pundits who predicted a post-Jurgen Klopp demise for the Reds have since been served multiple helpings of humble pie, with Arne Slot making the transition to a new era look seamless so far.

The 46-year-old is only at the midway point of his first season in charge at Anfield, so there’s still plenty for him to prove in English football, but he already seems to be perfecting a balancing act which has stymied numerous top-flight managers.

Some have paid the price for excessive conservatism, while others such as Ange Postecoglou refuse to compromise on a high-wire cavalier approach (on the subject of gameplay which doesn’t compromise on entertainment, check out NewsBTC’s list of casinos not on Gamstop).

However, Slot has nailed that delicate balance at Liverpool, as evidenced by a series of performance figures from the Premier League season so far which have many pundits rightly talking up their prospects of claiming the title by May.

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Liverpool clinical going forward

As 2024 draws to a close, the Reds are the highest scorers in the English top flight this season (45 goals) and boast the second-best defence (17 conceded, one more than Arsenal from the same number of matches played).

It can happen that actual goals for or against belie the true flow of a football match, but in Liverpool’s case, the above returns are a fair reflection of how they’ve played during the campaign so far.

As per FBref, the Reds’ xG of 41.3 is the highest of any Premier League team up to now, while their xG against of 16.7 is the second-best, figures which correspond with their rankings for goals scored and conceded.

Slot’s attackers have been clinical, with his side landing more shots on target (119) than anyone else in the division despite three teams exceeding their overall shots tally of 293, and only Brentford can better their on-target return of 40.6%.

Liverpool among the best defences in the Premier League

Liverpool have clearly been excellent going forward, and despite a run of just two clean sheets in their last seven Premier League matches, they’re also among the best defensive sides in the top flight.

Only Manchester City (163) have allowed fewer shots against them than the Reds (173), with our goalkeepers facing fewer shots on target (57) than any other team in the league.

Meanwhile, the squad’s tackle success of 55.9% is the highest in the division, which shows that the players are putting in the hard yards out of possession to complement the penalty box potency.

The underlying figures from Liverpool’s season so far demonstrate that Slot’s team boast the right balance between defensive solidity and attacking decisiveness, a combination which should serve them very well in their increasingly plausible pursuit of the Premier League title.