Aston Villa may have prompted Liverpool tactical change with huge benefits

When it comes to the financial arms race, Liverpool cannot hope to compete with the far more lavishly funded clubs in the Premier League and Europe. Everything they do has to be geared towards extracting the maximum possible benefit.

This is most obviously seen in the transfer market. Rival fans, pundits and even Liverpool supporters have questioned why their club signed the likes of Andy Robertson, Gini Wijnaldum or Diogo Jota, but their subsequent success showed the analysts at Anfield usually know what’s best for Jurgen Klopp’s squad.

While identifying relatively low cost but effective signings is the most notable use of statistical analysis, it can also have an impact on the pitch during games. Football coach Chris Summersell has recently identified a way in which the Reds’ differ greatly from the rest of the top flight with respect to how they deal with opposition attacks outside the penalty area.

The research for his article was prompted by Lautaro Martinez’ long-range winner for Inter Milan at Anfield. Though the strike was eye-catching enough on its own, Summersell’s attention was drawn to the fact Virgil van Dijk stood off and allowed the Argentine to shoot, rather than attempting to block his effort.

What would be considered poor defending by most other centre-backs must have been a conscious choice if the world’s greatest defender did this, right? It certainly looks that way when viewing a compilation video of Liverpool players reacting in similar fashion in other matches this season.

Summersell found that the Reds stand far apart from their Premier League peers in this sense. Where Liverpool have blocked 15 percent of opposition open play shots from outside the box, the next lowest figure is Brentford