Jurgen Klopp may have just found path to defensive perfection at Liverpool

Liverpool’s performance in their 1-0 win at Newcastle last Saturday was seriously impressive considering the circumstances in which the fixture was played. With an endless stream of must-win matches coming thick and fast, Jurgen Klopp opted to largely rest key men Thiago Alcantara, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho and Mohamed Salah, a quartet who would walk into just about any starting XI in the world.

And that was a risky move considering the size of the task facing the Reds at St James’ Park. The Magpies went into the game with the second-best record in the Premier League in 2022, and no side outside the division’s big six clubs has bagged more goals this year.

For Liverpool to have prevented them from scoring without their whole first choice back four on the field was notable. In one sense it was among their best defensive performances of the last few years, and it entirely justified Klopp’s tactical decisions.

No matter how dominant one team is within a match, their opponents will inevitably have some efforts at goal. Although the Reds had 24 shots of their own – their joint-sixth most in an away league game under Klopp – Newcastle were able to have four attempts in return.

However, none of their shots came from within the Liverpool penalty area and that was an unusual occurrence. This was only the fifth instance of the Reds preventing the opposition from having a goal attempt in their box in their 225 league matches since the beginning of 2016/17.

The previous example from this season coincidentally also occurred against Newcastle. Jonjo Shelvey opened the scoring from long range at Anfield in December, but the home side were able to recover to claim a 3-1 win.

Their were two instances of a ‘shots in the box clean