Using our unique data, here's a visualisation of our pressing evolution under Klopp.
Direct of play is right to left
On left is when game is level, on right when leading
Top images are 2016/17, bottom are 2019/20
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@LiamTharmeCoach
Finally, a shout out to the big man Darwin Nunez. This would be an outstanding press-map for any
#LFC
centre forward, for Nunez this is a REVELATION.
59.2 possession adjusted is the 5th highest single match figure in our database!
Mo Salah's gegenpressing is often under-rated by fans and media. This is his pressmap vs Arsenal. 16 in the opposition box!
Bobby was sensational vs Arsenal and had 42 presses, Mo had 41 (his 2nd highest match total ever)
All comps since the start of last season, excluding minutes played in defence. Naby Keita tops literally every single qualitative pressing metric that we have
Here is our 2019/20 data (all comps, when playing in centre midfield only)
Presses p90 (adjusted for possession)
32.8 Fabinho
29.6 Ox
29.3 Keita
28.9 Milner
28.4 Hendo
17.6 Gini
There's been a lot of noise about Naby Keita in the last week, here's our view using our unique data. First of all, these are the players with 30+ presses p90 since we started collecting.
An outstanding pressing dashboard from Stefan Bajcetic. Volume, intensity and quality - the complete package. Best individual pressing performance by any
#LFC
players since Naby Keita FA Cup semi-final
LFC 2020/21 Pressing Summary of our in-house collected data (min 150 presses)
All stats include only minutes played in mifield and attack
Presses p90 (raw)
39.4 Keita
27.0 Jota
25.9 Firmino
24.2 Thiago
21.4 Jones
15.5 Henderson
15.3 Wijnaldum
The Best Kind of Pressing: High Value Possession Wins Leading to Shots, Goals or Counterattacks... Fabinho in a league of his own, Thiago and Keita standouts.
According to our unique data, in calendar year 2020 Mo Salah has become the most effective presser in the team. He has 13 presses leading to shots, every 146 minutes. The next best is Bobby with 9, every 202 mins
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Mane and Salah have had some huge pressing games in the past but both got their career max against City, 47 for Sadio and 49 for Mo (with 14 possession wins!)
Naby Keita delivered the highest possession adjusted figure we've ever collected, 65.1 !!
Only 7 EPL have > 5.5 aerial duels p90 this season.
VVD & Matip are a combined 14.4 p90 at a sensational 83% win rate.
VVD 7.7 @ 80%
Matip 6.7 @ 88%
Dont underestimate the importance of this in the EPL.
@LiamTharmeCoach
More importantly, for the first time Nunez showed genuine systemic integration with his team mates in when and how to press.
He was happy to take his cue from his team-mates and would wait for backup rather than go on mad solo dashes. There is real discipline in that press map
According to our unique data,
#LFC
have now had 281 shots from pressing situations in the EPL under Klopp.
The conversion rate of open play shots from pressing is 50% higher than shots from non-pressing.
2018/19 most presses p90 (all comps, excludes minutes at fullback, centre back)
32.5 Keita
29.5 Bobby
29.3 Milner
28.8 Fab
25.2 Hendo
Ox 2017/18 was 35.1, Bobby 32.9
Mo Salah has 21 presses leading to shots this season, every 177 minutes. This is the highest volume AND best rate in the team.
3 of them in the 2 games covered by our latest pod which is out very soon
Been a while since we posted any of the in-house pressing data viz but we've finally got a performance to get excited about. Aston Villa was huge strides in the right direction
#LFC
🧵
Real Madrid pod is out and unsurprisingly there is detailed look at our pressing using our unique data. The narrative that "we didn't press" is wrong. We pressed Real 167 times and the Leipzing first leg was 172. The issue was where and how we pressed. THREAD
One real positive in the Southampton game was the return of Ox.
21 total presses not a huge number but two standouts:
1) 100% efficiency
2) 14 presses leading to possession wins. That's the joint 3rd highest match total we've seen for a player under Klopp
The early signs in our unique pressing data for Minamino and Jones are as promising as Keita and Ox when they broke into the team.
Minamino leads the team for possession adjusted presses p90 (42.4) and a press leading to a shot every 96 minutes (Salah next best 172 mins)
Possession wins p90 this season vs last season
Keita 7.0 (7.2)
Firmino 3.6 (5.2)
Salah 10.5 (4.6)
Mane 7.3 (3.8)
Wijnaldum 3.2 (3.7)
Salah has become a possession winning monster so far this season
Also an elite off-ball performance from the centre forward position by Mo. 29 pressing actions, only 1 fail and 10 leading to possession wins, the most in the team. 9 of those turnovers were inside the Leicester defensive 3rd 🔥
For last night's episode,
@Barts78
ran a Monte Carlo sim on the likelihood of Liverpool scoring zero goals across the three finals...
It was more likely we scored FIFTEEN than ZERO.
Most likely we score 7.
It was just an extreme outlier.
A look at player pressing since the start of 2018/19 using our unique data:
1. Possession wins p90
7.0 Keita
6.6 Fabinho
6.0 Ox
5.3 Firmino
4.9 Lallana
4.7 Hendo
Everyone else 4 or less
As discussed on our latest pod.
Sadio Mane's 16 presses leading to shots this season. He is absolutely killing that left halfspace.
Sadio is every 111 mins this season. Ox was top last year with every 157 mins.
One thing we go in depth on was the LFC high line/offside trap. Brentford caught offside SEVEN times in 1st half, virtually every attack. We have caught our opponents offside 78 times, 31 more than any other team!
Quick update on our key pressing metrics after 20% of the season.
Presses p90 (possession adjusted)
35 Elliott, Jota
34 Firmino, Keita
33 Jones
29 Henderson
Big Save% since 2018/19 (Opta big chances saved Vs faced)
Alisson Becker has 4 of the top 5 individual seasons with only Mat Ryan 19/20 breaking his monopoly
Two data viz to emphasise the brilliance of Alisson Becker.
This is all Premier League GK (min 50 games since 18/19) and their performance vs high quality chances on target (think a 1 on 1 or shot with clear line of sight to goal).
The big man is in a league of his own
#lfc
A look at our updated pressing trends under Klopp.
First of all press efficiency. After some significant issues in the Autumn (e.g. replacing key system cogs like Wijnaldum/Firmino) there has been a very strong recovery and we are now close to our peak historical performance
LFC vs EPL Bottom 14 this season (6 matches)
When game is TIED:
132 minutes
65% possession
22-7 shots (76% TSR)
8-0 big chances (5.4 p90)
When WINNING:
439 minutes
57% possession
63-49 shots (56% TSR)
6-2 big chances (1.2 p90)
If Keita is still 30+ p90 after 1500-2000 minutes then he'll be confirmed as a perfect player for the Klopp system. Against Palace his distance was 9.2k when he was subbed, which projects to a monster 12.5k over the full match
So despite his "on ball" productivity being mediocre so far we think there are a lot of very positive signs. When the on-ball side of his game finally clicks, he could well be the full package and a rival to Ox, Bobby and Fab as our most valuable off-ball player.
This season in the EPL we have had 72 shots that originating from pressing. Here's the location of those presses. Our top players for presses leading to shots are:
12: Salah, Firmino
10: Robertson
9: Fabinho, Henderson
Jurgen talked about the "best behind closed doors counter pressing ever" after the match.
We don't agree with Jurgen. According to our data we have this as the most intense full match pressing performance EVER. And this is the 203rd match we've collected.
Pod recording later
About a third of responses said Ox and they were correct!
60.8 presses (possession adjusted)
We had 59% possession while Ox was on the pitch and he was on for 13.6km full match 🔥
One of our players broke the record for single match pressing volume against United, anyone want to guess who?
Quality was superb as well, 10 possession wins and THREE leading to shots.
Average pressing positions for Arsenal are absurd. We've seen this extent of high pressing only once before under Klopp, anyone want to guess which match?
With the
#EPL
returning this weekend, it's time for our look at one of the issues affecting
#LFC
this season: the effectiveness of our systemic press. We think this is a unique perspective using our in-house pressing data
Tyler Morton vs AC Milan. An excellent pressing performance.
88% efficiency (high in a scratch team that had low efficiency)
10 group presses (most in team)
9 high value presses (most in team)
THREAD: Most intense full-match pressing performances under Klopp 2015/16 to present.
Principle = You don't press when you have the ball
Intensity = Number of pressing actions adjusted for LFC possession share and volume of opposition passes
Thread:
LFC had effectively won the league on Jan 29th after 24 games when we had a 19 point lead (some could argue we had it won earlier than that but there is no argument after GW24)
For context, here are our highest CM Presses p90 seasons under Klopp:
41.7 Ox 17/18
41.6 Keita 18/19
36.3 Fabinho 18/19
35.6 Lallana 15/16
34.5 Allen 15/16
34.2 Milner 17/18
34.1 Can 17/18, Hendo 15/16
Porto pod out imminently and we celebrate an excellent off ball performance. All 3 midfielders good but Keita best presser AND highest distance covered.
Presses p90 this season vs last season
Keita 39.5 (26.9)
Firmino 35.5 (25.2)
Salah 33.1 (16.0)
Mane 31.0 (15.7)
Wijnaldum 25.4 (15.6)
Everyone currently at least 50% higher. Mane and Salah DOUBLE
As discussed on latest pod, here are Alisson's top 7 shot stopping performances for
#LFC
as per
@fbref
@StatsBomb
Post Shot XG.
Palace is 2nd, but look which 2 matches also make the list 👀
That trophy is his more than anyone else's
One of our players broke the record for single match pressing volume against United, anyone want to guess who?
Quality was superb as well, 10 possession wins and THREE leading to shots.
According to our unique data we had 28 possession wins from pressing Leicester's *back 4* in the Anfield game. That's the most against any opposition defence under klopp. Looks like we're well on the way to repeating that tonight
Ox on Hojbjerg was the top pressing combination. Ox won possession 6 times in the 8 times he pressed him.
Ox also recorded top distance in the match with 11.8km
Pressing trends under Klopp (6 game moving average)
1) Presses leading to shots
The recent run of games has seen us shoot up to a new peak of 4.5 per match.
It's no coincidence that this aligns to our recent glut of big chances and high shot quality as discussed on latest pod
Shaqiri: the good.
When you consider he's at Stoke, the raw shots/key passes look good vs Mane/Salah at same age
XG Buildup also good.
His distance/sprints also good considering he's not on a high intensity team, would need to up by 30% at LFC.
After the recent Athletic article on a declining pressing trend in the EPL, we've been asked a number of times what we're seeing in our data. The answer is a big change but not in the way you might expect. THREAD
Mane's other hotspot was on Steffen who he targeted 8 times in total. Keita was literally everywhere but primary target was Bernardo, similar to how he went man-to-man on Kante in the League Cup final. Salah targeted Ake an incredible 25 times.
Using our unique data, here's a visualisation of our pressing evolution under Klopp.
Direct of play is right to left
On left is when game is level, on right when leading
Top images are 2016/17, bottom are 2019/20
#lfc
A couple of pressmaps to accompany the Man City pod which is out soon. First of all, the targeting of Rodri: 37 times. By our data he is our most pressed opponent in any match since December 2018 (Xhaka at Anfield).
Bobby and Mane mostly in the attacking half
Arsenal podcast being recorded tomorrow and another monstrous pressing performance from the Reds. Just like the Chelsea game, straight into Klopp's top 10 for full match intensity. A big story in this game was 25 possession wins off Arsenal's back 4 and GK. 3 led to shots
3) Press leading to a shot every N minutes:
98 Mane (Ox 138)
117 Fabinho
185 Henderson (297)
202 Milner (229)
253 Firmino (163)
274 Wijnaldum (331)
377 Robertson (202)