Last season, I fawned over the number of late goals Liverpool conjured. Through 29 games (in all competitions), Liverpool scored 23 goals after the 75th minute. In the second half of the season, they added 14 more, for a total of 37 in 59 games.
Liverpool hasn’t quite kept up that pace this season; in 46 games this year, the team’s scored 27 with less than 15 minutes remaining.
However, where they’ve improved is in late winners. 12 games have been won thanks to goals scored after the 75th, and 10 of those were in the league – compared to nine in all competitions last season. Benayoun, Kuyt and Torres are joint-top scorers with three each. Plus, a point was saved with late goals against City (Kuyt 78’) and Atletico (Gerrard 90+4’ pen).
8/16 Sunderland – Torres 1-0 83’
8/23 Boro – Gerrard 2-1 90+4’
8/27 Liege – Kuyt 1-0 118’
9/13 United – Babel 2-1 77’
10/5 City – Kuyt 3-2 90+2’
10/18 Wigan – Kuyt 3-2 85’
10/29 Pompey – Gerrard 1-0 (pen) 75’
12/6 Blackburn – Benayoun 2-0 79’
2/1 Chelsea – Torres 1-0 89’
2/7 Pompey – Torres 3-2 90+1’
2/25 Real – Benayoun 1-0 82’
4/4 Fulham – Benayoun 1-0 90+2’
Never say die, indeed.
1 comment :
The best part is that each one of those is ingrained in my memory...great stat work nate, too bad about Villa today. It's interesting the gaps that exist--most recently because of settling the win early, but from December to February it was draw city. It's almost like Rafa has flipped the tactical approach--the last 10 minutes of Liverpool matches have usually been full-on attack in search of a winner/equalizer, but in the past month or so it's been the first half that's seen most of the urgency. Maybe that's why we saw a bit of a lull in the second half on Saturday...but a win nonetheless. Roll on Wednesday.
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