27 December 2007

15 minutes remaining…

There are several differences between this year’s Liverpool team and last year’s. I just want to highlight one.

Through the 29 games so far this season, Liverpool’s scored 23 goals after the 75th minute. Through the same amount of games in 06/07, the team scored 11.

07/08
Villa 8/11 – Gerrard 87’
Sunderland 8/25 – Voronin 87’
Toulouse 8/28 – Kuyt 87’ 90’
Derby 9/1 – Voronin 76’, Torres 77’
Reading CC 9/25 – Torres 86’
Wigan 9/29 – Benayoun 75’
Tottenham 10/7 – Torres 90’
Everton 10/20 – Kuyt 90’
Besiktas 10/24 – Gerrard 85’
Besiktas 11/06 – Babel 78’ 81’, Crouch 88’
Fulham 11/10 – Torres 81’, Gerrard 85’
Porto 11/28 – Torres 78’, Gerrard 82’, Crouch 87’
Bolton 12/2 – Babel 85’
Marseille 12/11 – Babel 90’
Portsmouth 12/22 – Torres 85’
Derby 12/26 – Gerrard 90’

06/07
Maccabi Haifa 8/9 – Gonzalez 88’
Chelsea 8/13 – Crouch 80’
Newcastle 9/20 – Alonso 79’
Tottenham 9/23 – Riise 89’
Reading CC 10/25 – Crouch 77’
Bordeaux 10/31 – Garcia 76’
PSV 11/22 – Crouch 89’
Galatasaray 12/5 – Fowler 89’
Fulham 12/9 – Gonzalez 90’
Charlton 12/16 – Bellamy 82’, Gerrard 88’

It’s also worth noting is that Gerrard’s gotten 5 of them this season compared to only 1 last season, while Torres has scored 6 of Liverpool’s late goals. In fact, players bought this summer (Torres, Babel, Benayoun, and Voronin) scored 13 of the 29 goals after the 75th minute this season.

But more importantly, only 2 games during this span last season were won by the late goal -- the first two of the season.

So far this campaign, Liverpool’s scored late winners against Villa, Wigan, Everton, Fulham, Porto and Derby, while Torres’ goal in the 90th minute against Spurs saved a point.

Good teams win games they look like they’ve lost or drawn. Good teams aren’t beaten until the final whistle blows. How many games have Arsenal, United, or Chelsea snatched at the death over the last three seasons?

That Liverpool’s added this dimension to their game can only bode well.

3 comments :

Anonymous said...

http://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php/topic,5703.msg80624.html#msg80624

linked to LFC Reds.com forum topic.

nate said...

Hey, thanks for the link.

Here's hoping the trend more than continues.

Anonymous said...

Sure Nate it's a good LFC forum that I'm a member of.