xG data exposes the truth behind Liverpool’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City | OneFootball

It might read 3-0 in the history books, but the numbers tell a very different story of Liverpool’s defeat at the Etihad.

According to The xG Philosophy on X, the non-penalty xG of the game was Man City (0.90), Liverpool (1.40) – which says everything about how misleading the final score really was.

Arne Slot’s side created enough to score at least once, and while we can’t pretend we were the better team, the suggestion that Liverpool were “dreadful” simply doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.

Data exposes the truth behind City’s 3-0 win

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Pep Guardiola’s men took the lead in freakish fashion when a Konate clearance rebounded off Erling Haaland’s face and looped over Giorgi Mamardashvili.

Their second came via a deflected effort from Nico Gonzalez, after we’d switched off from a quick corner, and the third was a moment of brilliance from Jeremy Doku.

But beyond those moments, we carved out big opportunities. Cody Gakpo’s second-half miss from Conor Bradley’s cross should’ve made it 2-1. Moments later, Mo Salah fired agonisingly wide from close range.

Even before that, Virgil van Dijk thought he’d levelled the game, only for his header to be ruled out for offside in what many have called a baffling decision.

As the data shows, City’s three goals came from limited open-play threat, our xG of 1.40 suggests we had enough to at least make it a contest.

Liverpool deserve fairer criticism after Etihad loss

(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Even Roy Keane’s “dreadful” verdict on Liverpool felt overblown given the underlying numbers.

Of course, he wasn’t wrong to be furious about our defending for the second goal – as he and Daniel Sturridge highlighted, we were too slow to push out from the corner – but to call the performance dreadful is to ignore the context.

We didn’t finish our chances, and we were punished for defensive lapses, but performance-wise, this wasn’t the kind of collapse critics have painted it as.

xG doesn’t lie, we competed far better than a 3-0 defeat suggests.

And for a team still bedding in new signings, losing in such unfortunate fashion to a City side celebrating Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game is no disgrace.

You can view the xG stats via @xGPhilosophy on X:

You can view Slot’s post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

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