“Nearly their year” — Key statistics of Liverpool’s remarkable yet unsuccessful 2018–19 Premier League campaign
Most loyal Manchester United fans including myself, typically find happiness in Liverpool FC’s defeats as much as we discover joy in United’s victories. That said, Liverpool’s resurgence in the last three years under charismatic Jürgen Klopp, has somewhat changed that view point (at least for me). In particular, I was impressed with the way Klopp developed the current Liverpool lineup which nearly won the English Premier League (EPL) title for the first time in 2018–19, to go with their remarkable triumph in the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League. The Anfield side led the league table for 17 weeks, and managed to keep the league alive until the final day against a dominant Manchester City side.
A week before Liverpool kickoff their 2019–20 EPL campaign against Norwich, let’s review the achievements of their 2018–19 campaign in comparison to other top performances in premier league history.
Points scored during an English premier league season
Liverpool’s total of 97 points is ranked 3rd highest in the history of the EPL, since its inception in 1992 to replace the English First Division, with the current Manchester City unit being the only team to better this points haul (in 2017–18 and 2018–19). To add some perspective, this tally was superior to the efforts of the undefeated Arsenal team of 2003–04 (90 points) and José Mourinho’s Chelsea side of 2004–05 (95 points). In fact, Liverpool remains the only team to feature in this leader-board, which failed to win the EPL title.
Most wins in a season
As expected, a higher point’s aggregate translates to a higher win percentage. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City outfit tops this table with 32 wins each in the last two seasons. Liverpool shares the 3rd position with Antonio Conte’s Chelsea team of 2016–17.
Most goals scored by a team in a season
In order to be successful in EPL you need to have strong attacking options that can create and convert scoring opportunities. Liverpool’s evolution in scoring improved significantly in the 2017–18 season, inspired by the brilliance of Mohamed Salah who scored a record breaking 32 goals in the league. The Merseyside outfit scored 84 goals in the season, which was comfortably better than their rivals Chelsea, Spurs and United, even though they were not even remotely close to Manchester City’s record haul of 106 goals. In 2018–19, Liverpool increased this to 89 goals, with forwards Salah, Mane contributing 22 each and shared the Premier League Golden Boot with Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
This effort placed them at the 8th position on the all-time list, along with the Sir Alex Ferguson’s Man United outfit that lost 2011–12 title to Roberto Mancini’s Man City on goal difference.
Among the teams that failed to win the league, 2013–14 Liverpool side occupies the 4th spot on the overall list, with 101 goals aided by Uruguayan striker Luis Suárez 31 goals.
Least goals conceded by a team in a season
One of the major concerns about the Liverpool unit of 2017–18 season was the inconsistent defense that conceded 38 goals. In January 2018, the club spent a world record fee of £75 million to acquire the services of the Southampton centre-back Virgil van Dijk. To further strengthen the defense Liverpool spent another £56 million to bring in Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker from Roma.
During the 2018–19 season, Van Dijk proved his worth by teaming up with Andrew Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joël Matip to transform the once fragile defensive outfit to the best defensive unit in the league, which only conceded 22 goals. In addition, the defensive unit also created 25 assists (12 for Alexander-Arnold and 11 for Robertson) and scored 7 goals (4 from Van Dijk). As a result, Virgil van Dijk was named the PFA Player of the Year and the Premier League Player of the Season for the 2018–19 season.
Liverpool’s defensive efforts place the team at 3rd spot of the all-time EPL list, behind Chelsea side of 2004–05 that only conceded 15 goals and the Arsenal team of 1998–99 that conceded only 17 goals.
Most clean sheets by a goalkeeper in a season
Alisson joined Liverpool after a brilliant performance at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and with the reputation that he is one of the best in the business. Like Van Dijk, he also justified his substantial price tag by becoming the first Liverpool goal keeper to win the “Premier League Golden Glove” since Pepe Reina with 21 clean sheets. This puts him level at the 2nd place in the EPL leaderboard with Manchester United’s Edwin van der Sar (2008–09) and Peter Schmeichel (1994–95), even though both of them played lesser number of games than Alisson. However, all three of them are behind the phenomenal 24 clean sheets off 35 games by Petr Čech in his first season at Chelsea in 2004–05.
Fewest defeats in a season
A high quality defense, coupled with a world class attacking line up, will often mean very few defeats. Liverpool remained unbeaten for 20 matches from August to December 2018 and managed to build up a 7 point lead over defending champions Manchester City. However, a close 2–1 loss versus City at the Etihad Stadium ensured that the league remained a two-horse race. Unfortunately, four drawn games against Leicester City, West Ham United, Manchester United and Everton within a month’s period (January 30, 2019 — March 3, 2019) resulted in Man City gaining a 1 point lead, which they managed to hold on to with an excellent run of 14 straight premier league wins at the end of the season. This ended Liverpool’s premier league dream from a yet another promising position, despite a 9 match winning streak of their own at the end of the season.
Although, having only one loss in the season ensured that Liverpool shared the 2nd place in the all-time table with the Chelsea team of 2004–05 for the fewest defeats in an EPL season, Arsène Wenger’s “Invincibles” from 2003–04 holds the top spot being the only team to remain undefeated throughout an entire premier league season.
In addition, this means that Liverpool FC joined an elite list of clubs that remained unbeaten at home throughout the season.
· Chelsea (2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08 and 2014–15)
· Manchester United (1995–96, 1999–2000 and 2010–11)
· Arsenal (1998–99, 2003–04 and 2007–08)
· Liverpool (2008–09, 2017–18 and 2018–19)
· Manchester City (2011–12)
· Tottenham Hotspur (2016–17)
Highest goal difference in a season
Finally, with 89 goals scored and only 22 conceded, Liverpool ended up with an impressive goal differential of 67. However, Manchester city retained supremacy in this regard with a much better goal difference of 72 in the same season.
Overall, Liverpool occupies the 4th place in the all-time rankings and remains the best among the teams that failed to win the championship.
Conclusion
Even though, the Anfield unit fell agonizingly short of winning their inaugural EPL crown, and their 19th league title overall, statistically they had one of the best premier league seasons of all time. In fact, purely based on stats, this can be considered as the best team that failed to win EPL. Thankfully, a well-deserved Champions league triumph gave some joy to the Liverpool players and fans, after this heartbreak and ensured they had something to cheer for at the end of this remarkable season.
Let’s hope for an even better EPL season from 9th August onwards.
Let me know, who do you think will win the 2019–20 EPL title? Will it be another 2-horse race between Liverpool and City? Can one of the other ‘big’ teams catch up with them?
Do let me know your thoughts and feedback in the comments section.
