Liverpool scaling new heights in vital statistic that can give them edge over Man City

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We’ve all been at a match when our team is struggling to play through the opposition’s deep lying defensive structure.

If an attacking player moves into a little space outside the penalty box, the familiar shout of ‘SHOOT’ will come up from sections of the crowd.

But while a long-range goal is always a possibility and looks spectacular, the odds of scoring from outside the box are far from in the shooter’s favour.

Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders has spoken about this in the past, with reference to the Reds’ need to create ‘eight or nine out of 10’ quality chances.

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As a shot from outside the box has around a one-in-twenty hope of finding the back of the net, the Dutchman clearly has a point.

He and Jurgen Klopp will therefore be delighted with how Liverpool are performing with regards to clear-cut chances.

This slightly subjective metric is used by Opta to denote opportunities where you would expect the attacker to score, be that from a penalty or very close range or if they are clean through on goal.

While it might be considered simplistic in the age of analysing matches with complex expected goal models, the team which has more clear-cut chances wins more often than the one which leads the xG battle.

And though it offers no guarantees on this front, of course, Liverpool have outdone