Liverpool will play their first competitive match in front of a packed Anfield for almost 18 months on Saturday when they welcome Burnley for the lunchtime kick-off.
While the Reds will rightly be red hot favourites to win the match, they have had difficulties with the Clarets on home turf in recent times.
Sean Dyche’s side have won one and drawn two of their last four visits, though the last two matches took place behind closed doors and so were in no way comparable to the atmosphere the visitors will face this weekend.
However, when they ended Liverpool’s long standing unbeaten home record in January, Burnley were very successful in preventing Jurgen Klopp’s side from making the most of something which has proven to be a key part of their attacking arsenal in recent years.
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Thanks in large part to the fabulous ability of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson to deliver pinpoint passes from wide areas into the penalty box, the Reds have been masters of creating goals via crossing.
In the last 11 years of Premier League football, there have only been 14 instances of a team amassing 17-or-more crossed assists in a single season.
Liverpool in 2018/19, with 17, and their league winning side of 2019/20, with 20, are two of them while Brendan Rodgers’ team set up 21 goals this way in their title challenge of 2013/14.
But against Burnley earlier this year, the Reds were largely toothless with their crossing.
The specific definition of a cross differs between data providers, but Statsbomb had Alexander-Arnold attempting 16, his highest figure for a single match in any of the four seasons since he became a regular in the team ( per FBRef ).
Opta went higher and recorded Trent as having launched 22 crosses at the Burnley defence, with just one – from a corner – finding a teammate in the box.
The man in question was Sadio Mane, and while he was able to send a header towards goal, his effort was blocked by Dwight McNeil.
And it wasn’t just Alexander-Arnold who had difficulty with his crossing on that winter evening either. Eight Liverpool players attempted at least one and collectively they totted up a grand total of 41 crosses.
The net result? Just three chances created from crossing, two of which occurred in the opening six minutes and none of which had a value of greater than 0.06 expected goals.
If shots only have a one-in-16 probability of resulting in a goal, three such chances are unlikely to get you very far.
Where Klopp’s side created goalscoring opportunities with 12.2 per cent of their crosses on average in their 37 other league games last season, here it was just 7.3 per cent.
The Reds were unsuccessful as Burnley packed their box and are certain to do the same on Saturday.
For 27 of the 36 open play crosses Liverpool attempted, the visitors had at least half of their outfield players in their own penalty area, and at least seven of Dyche’s men (plus Nick Pope) were present to defend 16 of them.
With that level of crowdedness, the delivery has to be absolutely pinpoint and unfortunately for Liverpool it was not, with the Clarets making a remarkable 24 headed clearances in the box, and 28 overall.
While their goals record in recent seasons suggests that the Reds don’t need any advice regarding their crossing, they could perhaps take a leaf out of Brighton’s book for the match with Burnley.
Graham Potter’s side won at Turf Moor last weekend, coming from behind to pick up a valuable 2-1 victory, and their goals came about in similar fashion.
In both cases a player who was to the right of the penalty area and no further than six yards from the byline played a low cross into the centre of the box.
Jakub Moder found Neal Maupay for the first goal, Pascal Gross picked out Alexis Mac Allister for the second, and the match was won.
With Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah on the right, Liverpool will undoubtedly have players capable of replicating this type of delivery, perhaps for Diogo Jota or Sadio Mane to convert.
Whether these will be their tactics for their Anfield opener or not, the Reds will certainly need a better approach than the one they employed the last time Burnley came calling.
