Brighton win shows Slot's new challenge after steadying Liverpool

Even while conceding goals, Liverpool have shown defensive improvement of late, but that went out of the window in a slick win over Brighton.

Photo: IMAGO | Anfield Index

The harsh read on Liverpool’s recent resurgence is that they haven’t, in fact, improved much at all.

Eight points from a possible 12 is arguably below par for four Premier League fixtures against sides whose current average position is 13th.

And there was clearly an element of fortune to that 1-0 Champions League win over Inter in between - namely, the soft late penalty won by Florian Wirtz.

But to say all this would be to ignore that, even though perfection remains a way off, one aspect of Arne Slot’s attempts to steady the ship has largely worked.

That is an uptick in the defensive output of a side that had, prior to this five-game unbeaten run, conceded 10 times across meetings with Nottingham Forest, PSV Eindhoven and Manchester City.

Four goals may have gone in during the latest tranche of fixtures, but there is a strong case that Liverpool were a little unfortunate given the improvement they have shown in terms of solidity.

Against West Ham, the Reds gave up just 0.23xG from open play, while against Sunderland this figure stood at 0.24.

Leeds United managed a similarly meagre 0.28 and Inter could only muster 0.37 even with the support of the San Siro behind them.

Of course, that did not stop Sunderland netting from a huge deflection, or Leeds scoring from a set-piece and a penalty en route to getting three.

But it was at least something for Slot to point to as evidence that better days were ahead as he looked to navigate a period in which his future had come into serious question.

Still, if one criticism remained, it was that Liverpool’s new-found miserliness had come at the expense of their cutting edge going forward.

In the games against West Ham and Sunderland, the Reds only narrowly exceeded one expected goal generated in open play (1.02 and 1.11 respectively).