Liverpool have had plenty of problems this season, but the defensive numbers are becoming almost impossible to explain away.
The 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa was another painful example of a side that can look vulnerable in almost every phase of play, and Jill Scott has now questioned how we’ve been allowed to concede so many goals.
Speaking on Stick to Football via The Overlap on YouTube, the former England international admitted she was shocked by one statistic in particular.
Scott said: “You know what I was shocked about? How many goals Liverpool have conceded? 50 52 is or something.
“To concede, like I know there’s a lot of noise around the manager and everything, but I’m like surely you’ve got to look at how we’re conceded 50 odd goals no matter how you set up whatever you’ve got to defend.”
That’s the part of this season that feels so damning.
Liverpool have conceded 52 Premier League goals, with only five sides in the division letting in more, and that simply isn’t compatible with being a team trying to defend a title or even comfortably secure Champions League football.
The wider debate around Arne Slot is only going to grow, especially with us still needing to get over the line against Brentford on the final day.
But Scott’s point cuts through some of the noise because, whatever the system, injuries or personnel issues, basic defending has to be better than this.
Ollie Watkins exposed that after the Villa game when he said Liverpool’s high line looked “disjointed” and that there was “a lot of space” for him to attack, which is the kind of opposition insight that should worry everyone at the AXA Training Centre.
Andy Robertson, who didn’t even feature at Villa Park, summed the night up by saying it was “a long way short of the levels of this club”, and the departing Scot was right.
We’ve now lost three times as many league games as last season, while 52 goals conceded tells its own story.
Slot may get the summer to rebuild, but Liverpool cannot afford another campaign where defending looks this optional.
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