Liverpool now have 2 of the 3 WORST tacklers in Premier League

Liverpool have two of the three worst tacklers in the Premier League right now, according to one dataset. The Reds just have to improve.

Whoscored had people guessing the players with the lowest tackle success rates (and at least 50 attempts) in the Premier League on Wednesday. The results didn’t exactly reflect favourably on Liverpool.

It turns out they have Trent Alexander-Arnold down as the worst in the English top flight, winning just 36.8%. That’s actually the lowest by far – the next worst is Mathias Jensen on 43.9%.

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And then comes another Liverpool player. Dominik Szoboszlai is the third-worst as he’s won just 47.7% of his tackles.

As we say, doesn’t look good for the Reds. But there are other things to consider here – but it means looking at other data.

Liverpool vs the Premier League

So one reason Liverpool players’  success rates look so low is because they go for quantity over quality. The Reds have attempted 644 tackles against dribblers this season, per FBref, comfortably the most in the Premier League.

They’ve also lost the most, 358, and have the second-worst success rate as a team (44.4%) behind only Newcastle United. In other words, Liverpool aren’t too concerned with missing tackles – they want to focus on putting in as many as possible.

And so a high-pressing player like Szoboszlai will naturally fail a lot as his job is to push up force the player on the ball into a decision. That won’t always mean actually winning the tackle – but forcing the player to run into someone else is a job well done.

You can see this elsewhere, too. Luis Diaz didn’t qualify for Whoscored’s list as he hasn’t attempted 50 tackles this season but he’s another who has a very low success rate (27%, per Fbref). But the Colombian is also someone who presses relentlessly. Harvey Elliott is another who would be around Szoboszlai on this list if he’s played more often.

As for Alexander-Arnold, that one is a concern. Not because the percent is low but because it’s considerably lower than it ever has been.

Again, taking Fbref data, they say Alexander-Arnold has won a meagre 29.4% of his challenges against dribblers this season. His previous low was 45% but last season the Scouser won 53%. In 2020/21, Alexander-Arnold won over 64%. For comparison outside of Liverpool, Kyle Walker is at 46.9% this season.

And so there is an issue there – and one that may have to do with his positional change over the last 12 months. It’s certainly something that needs to improve.

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