Ranking Liverpool's best ever Premier League sides based on PPG | OneFootball

Highlights

Liverpool are undoubtedly one of the greatest teams in English football and have continued to be a force in the Premier League era. The Reds have won 19 league titles in their history, which is second only to their bitter rivals Manchester United's 20. They enjoyed a truly successful period from the 1960s to 1980s and a lot of their side from that time feature in a previous list we've made, detailing the Reds' greatest-ever teams throughout history.

However, today we're just focusing on their time in the Premier League and it's fair to say Liverpool have at times fallen some way below the standards set by the likes of Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley's teams. For example, fans will want no reminding of the 2010/11 season when Roy Hodgson was appointed manager and had the Reds in the bottom three as late as October.

Ranking factors

But here at GIVEMESPORT, we're here to talk about some of their best Premier League campaigns, not the worst. This ranking has been calculated based on points-per-game (PPG) rather than just pure points totals to ensure balance when it comes to the first three seasons when top-flight teams played four additional matches, although to be honest, Liverpool weren't pulling up many trees in the Premier League's infant years. We opted to use this metric because it eliminates any subjectivity when it comes to determining who is really "the best," as picking up points in football is what it's all about.

You may be surprised to hear that not a single one of their first nine campaigns made the top ten since 1992, including the 2000/01 season when Gerard Houllier's side won a treble consisting of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup, as this list is based purely on league form. That may serve as the first shock to some, but there is more to come on that front.

All data regarding points-per-game (PPG) averages have been taken from Fbref.com - one of the most reliable databases when it comes to football. The current 2023/24 squad has not been included in this list.

10 2017/18 season - 1.97 PPG

Straight away, some fans may be shocked this season is as low as it is, considering the Reds embarked on a dramatic Champions League campaign, reaching the final in Kyiv where they were beaten by Real Madrid. In the league, there were certainly flashes of the Liverpool side under Jurgen Klopp that we'd come to know, with the Reds remaining unbeaten at Anfield and Mohamed Salah scoring an absurd 32 goals in his debut season at Anfield. However, 12 draws and a pretty leaky defence, before the arrival of Virgil van Dijk in January, prevented the Merseysiders from ever launching a truly serious title bid in the year when Man City became Centurions.

9 2016/17 season - 2.00 PPG

Liverpool fans may be even more surprised to learn that the 2016/17 campaign was better than the one that followed, as it seemed like the Reds got better with each year when Klopp first came in. However, the Reds actually earned an additional point this season, placing it above 2017/18. It was Philippe Coutinho's final full season at Anfield and Sadio Mane's first as Liverpool edged ahead of Arsenal into the top four, earning Champions League football for the first time in three years.

8 2007/08 season - 2.00 PPG

Liverpool accumulated the same PPG in 2007/08 as they did in 2016/17, but we've ranked the former side higher based on their superior goal difference. This season is most fondly remembered by Liverpool fans as Fernando Torres' first for the club and the Spaniard certainly hit the ground running, scoring 24 league goals and becoming the most prolific foreign goalscorer in a debut campaign in England. However, this wasn't enough to help the Reds finish any higher than fourth, seven points behind Arsenal in third.

7 2001/02 season - 2.11 PPG

This is the earliest Premier League campaign on this list by some distance. At times during the season, Liverpool looked like genuine title contenders despite manager Gerard Houllier missing a large chunk of the season due to a heart condition and the sale of hugely popular Robbie Fowler to Leeds United. In the end, the Reds came second, a long way behind Arsenal but were pleased to have finished ahead of rivals Manchester United for the first time in the Premier League.

6 2005/06 season - 2.16 PPG

A year after Rafael Benitez had guided Liverpool to Champions League glory at the expense of a place in the top four, the Reds turned their attention to domestic football. Despite only scoring 57 goals, 11 fewer than Arsenal a place below them, the Merseysiders finished in third position, just a point behind Manchester United and with their highest points total in the Premier League at that time, Steven Gerrard also inspired the Reds to their seventh FA Cup.

5 2013/14 season - 2.21 PPG

The 2013/14 campaign saw Liverpool launch the most unlikely of title challenges, helped in no small part by the lethal goalscoring of strike partners Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge. The Uruguayan actually missed the start of the season after he was banned for biting Branislav Ivanovic, but managed a staggering 31 goals in 33 league appearances upon his return. A combination of Steven Gerrard's infamous slip against Chelsea and a capitulation away at Crystal Palace allowed Man City to sneak in and beat the Reds to the title by three points.

4 2008/09 season - 2.26 PPG

This was undoubtedly Liverpool's strongest domestic campaign under Rafael Benitez. An amalgamation of Steven Gerrard's strongest goalscoring season and the form of Fernando Torres saw the Reds mount a serious bid for the league, memorably winning 4-1 against title challengers, Manchester United at Old Trafford. Despite only losing two league games all season, too many draws hamstrung the Merseysiders, who fell four points short of Sir Alex Ferguson's formidable outfit.

3 2022/23 season - 2.42 PPG

For the top three, we officially enter Liverpool's golden era of the Premier League under the stewardship of Jurgen Klopp and Reds fans will be left to question just how only one of these teams managed to win the title. The 2021/22 season saw Liverpool go for an unprecedented quadruple, reaching all three finals and taking a thrilling title race to the final day. Having won both the FA Cup and League Cup, at one stage, it looked like the title would also be heading their way before Man City recovered against Aston Villa to retain their crown and a week later, an outstanding goalkeeping display from Thibaut Courtois saw them come undone against Real Madrid in the Champions League final.

2 2018/19 season - 2.55 PPG

Liverpool fans perhaps found it a little easier to deal with the heartache on the final day of the 2021/22 season after their torrid time three years earlier. Setting all sorts of records for a Premier League who would not go on to win the league, the Reds finished on 97 points, having lost just one league game all season, but that still wasn't enough to win the title ahead of Pep Guardiola's ruthless Manchester City side. Jurgen Klopp's men at least provided the consolation of a sixth Champions League title, memorably overturning a 3-0 deficit to stun Barcelona at Anfield before beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 in the final.

1 2019/20 season - 2.61 PPG

Liverpool's 30-year wait for a Premier League title finally came to an end the following season. They took absolutely no pity on Manchester City's faltering start to the season and instead went on an unprecedented run of 26 wins out of their first 27 league matches.

By the time that run came to an end with a shock 3-0 defeat away at Watford at the end of February, the title was already all but sewn up. Even a three-month halt to the season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic could not derail Jurgen Klopp's men from winning the ultimate prize, which they managed by finishing a whole 18 points ahead of Pep Guardiola's men.

Perhaps the only mild frustration for Reds supporters was that they came one point short of matching City's record of 100 points. Regardless of that fact, the 2019/20 season was by far and way Liverpool's best-ever season and a tribute to the formidable team Klopp had managed to assemble.