Anfield Until The End 17/18

Just About Mid-Season Look

A little later than last year but that's all thanks to the narrative changing twice over after the Arsenal match and today's match against Swansea. Let's start with a nice look at the table!

Although in 4th rather than 2nd like last year, believe it or not, we actually have more points this time around (Well, I am posting this at a later time this season, but optimism should still be there)! With more draws than expected (or wanted), our numbers certainly could be higher, but with the absolute intensity this year, this is nothing to laugh at. (I mean, Burnley's right behind Arsenal, that says something) 

And here's the rest of the table:

Let's go straight to top goal scorers this season, which I had a lot of fun looking over.

Mo Salah, what an absolute legend! Not too long ago, he was top of this table but thanks to a quick hat trick by Harry Kane today, he went top. This still can't stop you from absolutely salivating at the fact that a winger that just came to this team during the summer and is, as I said before, a winger, is only five goals away from being a twenty goals a season player. This is something that Firmino had to worry about constantly and I thank who ever made it their mission to sign Salah because that stress of Firmino's back (whether it was actually there or not) has allowed him to just blow up and be absolutely instrumental in our fluidity recently that we've just been enjoying. Last season, no one was in the top ten for us. Now? One in second, another in eighth and the third not too far away in twelfth. I wasn't able to find the website that I used last year to see the percentage of how much that contributes to the teams overall amount of goals, but the goals are still spread about pretty evenly. Though there are a few that are just getting on the score sheets (TAA and AOC for example), just about the whole team getting in on the action allows for stuff like last year's breakdown to be avoided or at least minimized.

For example, Mane (I got a new laptop that wont let me add accent marks, forgive me) is currently "out of form". Has this harmed the team in anyway? Not really, not at all. We've continued on and with a slip up or two as per usual, fingers aren't being pointed at him at all. I think this kind of set up is crucial, especially with the winter stress of constant matches now on and players needing to be rested. Who knows? Maybe Mane will find himself in a hat trick situation next match.

(Also, is anyone deeply disappointed in Arsenal and for some reason expected . . . more?)

Onto the assists!

I didn't expect this many people tied for the same position, but it does mean Coutinho is on the rise from his seventh spot of last year to fourth of this year, which is a wonderful jump considering he's had more time to build up the numbers as he's not injured this time around. Funny enough, Salah is also tied in eighth for assists. Almost as if he can't stop himself from being  a part of a ton of goals. Not as many players up here in assists as there were last year, but it doesn't really matter so long as the goals keep coming in, right? I'll expect more goals and assists out of the team, but I'm not sure if this will start a rise in the position for these guys. 

Clean sheets weren't in last year's edition (passes were) but those weren't at all fun (Henderson's 13th there and I only added it last year because he was first and it's not the most important stat to me) so I added this one, which I should have added last year.

Karius won't be on this list for obvious reasons (he's the CL keeper of course), so this is kind of Mignolet's time to shine. 

This see's him at sixth, on par with Lloris, who is either still very good or has fallen from grace since Euro 2016, I can't remember really and my Spurs fan brother is no help. 

But it's also a nice thing to note that our defense is actually better than we thought it was. Understand? Due to laziness, I won't look up how many clean sheets we had last year, but I think the number was around ten. I call this little thing . . . improvement. 

Either Mignolet got better or we actually got a somewhat stable defense. This is the part I kept deleting over and over again, whether to praise or go after out defense but I think this is a good moment to give them a little praise. With Clyne out for so long and being the stable part of our defense for much of last season, I expected a bit of problems. Okay, many problems. Lots and lots of problems. Don't sue me, I'm sure you all did too. Even with that, having either TAA, Robertson or Gomes coming in (all these three players still relatively recent additions to the permanent basis) and still doing a great job without catastrophic problems is pretty wonderful. I think it tells of something absolutely wonderful: we're growing up as a team.

Have a happy rest of your Boxing Day and maybe I'll see you all in the last few days of this year. If not, then Happy New Year! Good night, Reds!