Livelayed twrpool has pice since the international break: on Thursday, they defeated LASK 4-0 in the Europa League and drew 1-1 with Manchester City at the Etihad.
Liverpool will now try to build on their remarkable run of ten straight home wins this season—all of which have been by two goals or more—against the Cottagers.
Although Fulham’s recent 3-2 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers was contentious and fortunate, they won’t be too optimistic going into Merseyside. The team led by Willian moved up to 14th place in the Premier League standings with his late penalty.
On paper, this Sunday’s matchup between Liverpool and Fulham appears to be fairly straightforward, but last season, Jurgen Klopp’s team only defeated Fulham 1-0 at Anfield thanks to a Mohamed Salah penalty.
Here are the numbers pertaining to Fulham’s Premier League season thus far because
complacency could have costly consequences.
HEADLINE FIGURES
Despite playing 13 league games this season, Fulham has struggled to maintain consistency. They have only amassed 15 points from their four games played, three drawn, and six lost.
This season, the Cottagers haven’t won back-to-back games, which is encouraging for Liverpool on Sunday. Actually, Silva’s team has only once avoided losing straight after winning—back in September.
Only two clean sheets have been maintained by Fulham, with the final one occurring in September. This is encouraging news for Liverpool’s incisive offensive line.
Although Silva’s team has only managed six points from seven away games this season, they have already triumphed on Merseyside, having defeated Everton 1-0 on the first day of play.
Even though Fulham has only scored six goals away from home this season, they have still managed to pick up points at Brighton and Arsenal.
EXPECTED GOALS
If table position was based on expected goals, Fulham would find themselves in the relegation zone. They have an xG of just 15.37, although they have actually scored just 13 times this campaign. Only Burnley and Sheffield United have a worse xG. Fulham have scored in over half their games but have also drawn blanks on six occasions, meaning that Liverpool shouldn’t be too concerned by their opponents’ attacking numbers, especially given their lack of an out-and-out goalscorer. When it comes to xGC (expected goals conceded), Fulham find themselves a little further up the table. The Cottagers have an xGC of 23.45 and have conceded just 22 times, suggesting they are slightly overperforming defensively.
That could be down to the impressive work of Bernd Leno who has faced the second most shots (51) – as many as Manchester United’s Andre Onana – in the Premier League this season after Sheffield United’s Wes Foderingham. Considering Liverpool have the second strongest xG and fourth strongest xGC in the league, it should be a comfortable win for the Reds this weekend.
POSSESSION
Despite having struggled this season, Fulham have generally enjoyed a fair amount of the ball. Silva’s men average 49.5% possession (8.2% less than Liverpool), higher than nine other teams in the division. Fulham are also tenth for most completed passes and ninth for progressive passing distance. Sunday’s visitors will certainly look to get the ball on the ground and play, although whether Liverpool will let them is another question.
For example, Fulham could only manage 32% possession in their 5-1 defeat to Man City in early September, while that number was only 29% in their 2-2 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates in August – although Calvin Bassey did get sent off with over ten minutes remaining in north London. Liverpool should enjoy the majority of the ball on Sunday but Fulham are more than capable of playing their way through the Reds if gaps appear.
FUN FACT
Mohamed Salah has scored as many Premier League goals as Willian, Raul Jimenez, Carlos Vinicius, Harry Wilson, Andreas Pereira and Alex Iwobi combined this season.
Leave a Reply