Arne Slot has only suffered four defeats at Liverpool so far, two of them meaningful, with the loss at Plymouth arguably the worst performance among them.
It is important to acknowledge that the Reds made 10 changes to their team that played Tottenham, and two of the three substitutes were debutants.
However, there should have been quality enough out there to beat Plymouth, who have won just two Championship games since the start of November.
Ironically, having beaten Brentford in the third round, that’s actually the same number of matches the second division outfit have won against Premier League opponents in the same period.
Liverpool kept at bay by Plymouth
The Reds were disappointing all over the pitch on Sunday, but perhaps where they frustrated most was up front.
Put simply, expected goals (xG) is a statistic that is supposed to measure the probability of a shot resulting in a goal – the higher the xG, the better the chance.
A front three of Federico Chiesa, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, good enough for most teams in Europe, produced just 0.34 xG and 0.37 expected assists (xA) between them, according to FotMob.
Jota completed just seven of his 18 passes, an incredibly low number, especially when you consider Plymouth striker Ryan Hardie managed to complete seven of his nine.
This was part of a wider poor showing that, as reported by FotMob, saw the Reds produce their second-lowest xG (1) of the season and their lowest xG from open play (0.44).
In effect, this means they were creating poor quality chances and were being kept at arm’s length by Plymouth.
Liverpool lacked creativity
Of course, the attacking trio also rely on the midfield behind to create opportunities for them, something that wasn’t happening at Home Park.
The Reds looked lightweight in the middle, after Wataru Endo was forced to move into defence due to Joe Gomez‘s injury.
This left a midfield of James McConnell, Trey Nyoni and Harvey Elliott – neither of the latter duo came out with any sort of positives from the match.
Nyoni is merely 17 years old and it would be unwise to read too much into the performance. Elliott, though, will be more disappointed.
FotMob tells us the 21-year-old – still young it is worth pointing out – had one off-target shot and created just one chance.
In the end, Liverpool resorted to throwing crosses into the box, something that played into the hands of defenders Maksym Talovierov and Nikola Katic.
In fact, Opta reported the latter made 11 headed clearances – the most by a player against Liverpool since Stefan Savic also made 11, for Atletico Madrid in March 2020.
The bobbly pitch, disjointed starting XI and early injury to Gomez were all valid reasons that contributed to the loss, but part of football is playing to the conditions.
Liverpool didn’t manage that on Sunday and it hopefully acted as a lesson for Slot.
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