Stats Behind Why This Season Has Been So Much Better Than Last for Liverpool

With just five games left in the Premier League season, Brendan Rodgers' Liverpool are still in with a shout of finishing the top-flight campaign by qualifying for next season’s Europa League.

Unlike this time last year, when the Reds could barely manage a league win at Anfield, there are smiles in the red half of Merseyside as optimism abounds that the new head coach has turned around the club’s fortunes.

True, there have not been two trips to Wembley Stadium for the fans this campaign. Liverpool’s displays in the domestic cup competitions have been underwhelming, to say the very least. However, in the Premier League, there has most definitely been an upturn in fortunes on the field of play.

Here are the stats to prove it.

Team Stats at Anfield (after 33 Top-Flight Games):

Pld: 16 (16)
W: 8 (5)
D: 4 (9)
L: 4 (2)
F: 30 (20)
A: 14 (13)
Pts: 28 (24)
*2011/12 EPL stats are in brackets

The first and most obvious thing to say is that Liverpool under Rodgers have remembered how to win at home in the league this season—something they found incredibly hard to do under previous manager Kenny Dalglish last time around.

Three more victories, 10 more goals and four more points at the corresponding point last season says it all.

Team Stats Away from Home (after 33 Top-Flight Games):

Pld: 17 (17)
W: 5 (7)
D: 7 (1)
L: 5 (9)
F: 29 (20)
A: 26 (23)
Pts: 22 (22)
*2011/12 EPL stats are in brackets

While the season-on-season comparison on the road is identical in terms of points won, anyone who has watched Liverpool on their travels in the league this campaign will have noticed a massive all-round improvement in their game. This is reflected in the fact they have lost just five times compared to nine defeats at the same juncture last season.

The Reds are also scoring more away from Anfield.

Overall EPL Form

Pld: 33 (33)
W: 13 (12)
D: 11 (10)
L: 9 (11)
F: 59 (40)
A: 40 (36)
Clean sheets: 13 (11)
Pts: 50 (47)
Ave pts per game: 1.52 (1.4)
League position: 7th (8th)
*2011/12 EPL stats are in brackets

Looking at Liverpool’s overall league form after 33 games of the two respective seasons, one can also see a clear and marked improvement across the board.

Firstly, the Reds have won more games than at exactly the same stage last year. Just as importantly, under Rodgers, Liverpool have lost fewer times than they had under Dalglish this time last April. This gives them three more points, more points per game on average and a higher position in the table than last season.

The club have scored 19 more goals than they had after 33 Premier League games in 2011/12, while also managing to keep two more clean sheets, which puts to bed the theory that the Reds have become defensively weaker under Rodgers than Dalglish.

Did You Know…?

Liverpool have scored more goals in all competitions this season under Rodgers than any previous Reds side have managed in the past 20 years, while Saturday was the first time since the Northern Irishman took over that the club have failed to score in back-to-back Premier League games.

To re-emphasise the team’s attacking improvement under the new manager this season, no side in any of Europe’s top-five leagues of Spain, Italy, Germany, England and France have had more efforts on goal than Liverpool this season. 

Individual Player Stats

2012/13 Goals/Assists after 33 games vs. 2011/12 Goals/Assists after 38 games

Luis Suarez: 22/7 vs. 11/6
Steven Gerrard: 9/ vs. 5/
Stewart Downing: 3/3 vs. 0/0
Jordan Henderson: 3/ vs. 2/

Perhaps the most striking comparison between Liverpool under Rodgers and the Reds under Dalglish comes in the form of Uruguay international Luis Suarez.

At this point last season, the striker was Public Enemy No. 1 in the country following his ill-advised refusal to shake the hand of Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, something reflected in his overall attacking numbers.

However, during the current campaign, the 26-year-old has appeared a man reborn under Rodgers’ management. Suarez has double the amount of strikes and more assists (from five fewer games, at that) in a season that could end with him being crowned the Player of the Year.

It is not just the club’s mercurial attacker who has improved individually this campaign, either. The contributions of midfield trio Steven Gerrard, Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson have all also got better this season.

The Reds captain has almost doubled his goals tally from last time around, albeit having played in 15 more games than in the last campaign, when the England international suffered an injury-ravaged season.

Big-money signings Downing and Henderson now look the part at Anfield, too. The former’s three goals and three assists are three more than he contributed in either category in the whole of the last campaign, while the latter has also improved from last season by scoring one more top-flight goal. Both players still have five more league games in which to improve on those numbers.