Are Liverpool Now the Best Attacking Team in the Premier League?

After having watched the West Ham game, I was surprised at the level of disappointment amongst both the pundits (it's to be expected, however) and the fanbase.

For me, Liverpool had just won the sort of game that they didn’t last year—the sort that cost us the four points needed to make legends out of Rafa’s boys. What is most interesting is we can score three goals against a good team and have justifiable disappointment in our performance.

Just looking at the statistical line from the game, Liverpool had 59 percent of possession and created 19 chances, five of which were on target. What’s even more telling is that of the remaining 14 chances that were not on target, all but four were blocked by defenders.

Plus, the majority of our possession was in the middle and attacking third of the pitch. And the statistics will not show the chances such as Benayoun’s jinking run—which beat six defenders but did not directly result in a shot on goal.

What is most amazing is that this was not even close to being our most dominant display this season. Against Burnley we racked up 28 attempts, with 15 on-target, three blocked, and one against the post. As with the West Ham game, many of these chances were high-percentage ones, drawing immense saves out of Jensen in Burnley’s goal.

So have Liverpool become the most exciting attacking team in the Premiership?

I think—despite my obvious bias—the answer is yes. We’re one short of the lead for goals scored this year with 16 (Arsenal lead with 17, mostly on the back of their thrashing of an unrecognizably poor Everton side) and we were the highest scorers by a considerable distance last year with 77 goals (the rest of the Big Four scored 68 each).

We scored in all but six fixtures last year—bettered only by Manchester United—and were not simply flat-track bullies. On aggregate we scored 19 goals against the other top five teams in the league (and managed four apiece against Real Madrid and Chelsea in the Champions League.

In the past 17 games, Liverpool have scored 50 goals—averaging almost three goals a game—and were never shut out.

One would think that this is incredible, if their only point of perspective is the print and television media. After all, how could a Benitez team, which is always characterized by ultra-defensiveness, be the top scorers in the league by a handful of goals?

How is this feasible whilst playing the “anti-football” super-negative 4-5-1 formation with the dreaded “two holding midfielder axis” in the center?

I’m sure Andy Gray and the like were truly gobsmacked at the notion that maybe 4-4-2, up-and-at-em traditional British football wasn’t the most effective in reality (surely it must be though, that’s what Manchester United use….right?).

In any case, I think one would have to look far and wide to find a team that, over the course of a season, will outscore this Liverpool side. At the rate we’re going now we’ll score over 100 goals in the Prem—and this is without knowing what contribution Alberto Aquilani will make to the attack, and with our two main points of attack—Gerrard and Torres—well off their best form.