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12 games from start of Feb to winning the PL W9 D2 L1, 2.42 PPG 1.93 non-pen XG pg 0.81 NPXGA 1.12 NPXGD Arsenal this season are 2.19 PPG and 0.99 NPXGD pg

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That always refers to muscular injuries. And we do still have low incidence of that

010

You mean the performance trend that is significantly better than anything Arsenal or City are putting up this season?

140

Its a fact we had one fewer senior player in the squad this season. but there does seem to be a gap with academy lads age 19-20 to supplement the senior squad. Nyoni is 18, Rio is 17. But I dont know if its a couple of fallow years in academy production or something else

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The summer window has raised a lot of questions. But last season when we had a good run with injuries and could just pick the best XI most weeks, some fans were saying that we had too many unused players

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Joe Gomez career usage 15 starts is above his median

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No one can win the PL or CL unless they have a good run with injuries

120

No, muscle injuries are the job of the backroom team to prevent. I'm talking about the lightning bolt, season-ending injuries. Most teams have 1 per season, even 2 is high

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markstatsbot @markstatsbot.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Leoni major knee injury Bradley major knee injury Isak broken leg Endo broken ankle Ekitike ruptured achilles And Gomez acute tendinitis for first 4 months of season Christ on a bike #lfc

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Reposted by Dan Kennett

Liverpool 0 : 2 PSG ▪ Penbox shots: 13 - 6 ▪ Deep Entries: 18 - 11 ▪ Buildup completion: 76.6% - 73.5% ▪ PPDA: 8.0 - 10.9 ▪ High turnovers: 4 - 3

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Reposted by Dan Kennett

markstatsbot @markstatsbot.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Liverpool 0 : 2 PSG ▪ xG: 1.7 - 1.42 ▪ xThreat: 2.15 - 0.9 ▪ Possession: 52.2% - 47.8% ▪ Field Tilt: 71.3% - 28.7% ▪ Def Action Height: 46.9 - 37.2

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But if you buy 22 year olds like hugo they typically arent the finished article so they need coaching and refinement

110

OTT but a kernel of truth

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If you aren't critical very often then people tend to take more notice when you are 😁

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"Team first" doesn't just mean off ball. It also means attacking players making the best decisions for the team on the ball in every phase and attack. If you think Hugo is doing that then thats your prerogative

100

Frimpong has genuinely elite physical attributes so there are many upsides. Its too early to make on ball judgements as he's only played 1.5k minutes

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And the execs are creating problems with multi year ticket price rises....... Other than that, its all gravy 🙄

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Hugo is a really good example. He only plays for himself and was genuinely bad in both legs vs PSG. Slot hasn't managed to make him more team-first (like Jota) at any point

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Its also a problem for the Sporting Director as its clear there are major profile gaps in the XI and squad. The team is way less than the sum of its parts despite having the biggest wage bill in the PL #lfc

4162

Enjoyed the performance while the tie was live but its a big problem now its settled. Its a problem for the players because it shows they can produce good intensity on a short turnaround. Its a problem for the coach because there's no synchronicity at the sharp end of the pitch in April #lfc

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I'm not talking about a single match! I'm talking about a study of hundreds of matches looking at the gap between the teams and the match result

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These are macro level stats tho. My post is about the gap between the 2 teams in a given match. There are no academic studies looking at this yet but the hypothesis is that once the gap reaches a certain level (e.g. 5km+ or half a player) then the impact on the match result becomes significant

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bsky.app/profile/dank...

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Its all season bsky.app/profile/dank...

010

For context, City outran Chelsea by 8km today. Almost a whole player

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Yes, it is. Were you the one debating or was it me? It was all in good faith from my perspective. Not every debate has to be a referendum on the coach even tho you clearly want it to be

100

Thats a ridiculous summary of some good debate. The crux is that a lot of fans are skeptical about the importance of total distance

100

They showed a banner during the game and you could hear a "greedy bastards" chant - both in first 15 mins

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The player churn is only 1 factor. The bigger question is the approach from the backroom team. We're still getting really good player availability and very low incidence of muscle injury, but the concern is we have dialled down training too much to achieve that so fitness is too low

110

Exactly, we won the sprinting 4.5 to 4.0km 1st half. 2nd half Fulham won 5.9 to 5.2km Both of these pass my eye test

000

We've talked about it a lot on the pod all season including last week. Theres a spectrum of sports science approaches and whilst we are still doing really well at avoiding muscular injuries, it might have come at a cost in other areas

020

We did outrun PSG but the gap was 2.8km. My point is where the gap between the 2 teams is half a player or more (5km+)

010

Having 4 season ending injuries is a huge factor

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To be clear, we dont need to outrun teams. We just need to match them or get to a level where the gap isn't significant. Once it gets above 5km its significant. We probably want to keep it below 3km

020

I think thats exactly what happened with the PSG 1st leg

000

Thats why I posted the XT race chart in my initial post. We got away with it today and didnt let a 2 goal lead slip (bournemouth, Newcastle, atleti, leeds) or concede a late goal

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Thats a macro level stat. I'm talking about individual matches where we are being outrun by 6, 7, 8 even 9km. If its just a few metres its of no consequence. The gap between the 2 teams on the day is what matters

000

Context is always important and today was the same situation as Brighton. Shit happens. But being outrun by half of player or more is a massive problem and a big explainer of our results, especially the late goals

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