The Question: why are Liverpool struggling to score at home?

[RichC]

well Suarez was 4 goals in 8 league games up to and including the Man Utd match clearly with Luis he's gone off the boil since this racism case with Evra started and no real shock there either.

Once we can get this behind us and him I think we'll see him come back and him back to more of a 1 in 2 goal ratio.

[Exiled_red]

well Suarez was 4 goals in 8 league games up to and including the Man Utd match clearly with Luis he's gone off the boil since this racism case with Evra started and no real shock there either.

Once we can get this behind us and him I think we'll see him come back and him back to more of a 1 in 2 goal ratio.

Hopefully, isn't his record since the Man Utd game about 1 in 10 (in the league)

[RichC]

well he's played 10 since then and scored 1 so yup

[Neil Young]

Hopefully, isn't his record since the Man Utd game about 1 in 10 (in the league)

That's because he hasn't been getting enough really good chances according to the globally accepted definition. I've got a spreadsheet somewhere that proves it.

Q.E.D.

[RedReet]

Not one mention of Shaggy in that original article.

[pondus]

Not one mention of Shaggy in that original article.

Shaggy, stay at home for FFS sake!!!!

[Bender]

Very few players in the box.

Very few runs from midfield.

Teams let us dominate because we have very few creative players.

that's very nice of the other team .......... but i'd rather say us dominating is down to the manager and the players

[Baracus]

Heard earlier today on Talksport that we are leading the charts when it comes to hitting the woodworks with 19. A Stat boff said that if you did that for every club and equated it to goals and added them to the results then you would have city at the top 7 points clear and swansea at the bottom.

We would currently be ......4th..1 point clear of Arsenal..Not much in it then really.

[Exiled_red]

Heard earlier today on Talksport that we are leading the charts when it comes to hitting the woodworks with 19. A Stat boff said that if you did that for every club and equated it to goals and added them to the results then you would have city at the top 7 points clear and swansea at the bottom.

We would currently be ......4th..1 point clear of Arsenal..Not much in it then really.

In fairness we haven't been hitting the woodwork recently, I remember it being 17 times in 17 league games at one point, so we've only hit it twice in the last 8

Or this could be because we've not been creating very much recently

[Muddled]

Yeah, we've gone from one extreme to another; creating chances for fun, but not taking them to creating some chances and still not taking them.

[Mostar]

In fairness we haven't been hitting the woodwork recently, I remember it being 17 times in 17 league games at one point, so we've only hit it twice in the last 8

Or this could be because we've not been creating very much recently

It is because of this.

We are terrible as of late in terms of creating goal scoring chances not only in terms of scoring but I am still surprised that we did not bring anybody in not even on a loan.

It is quite ironic to me for a club that has the worst conversion rate like us that we decided to go into the second half of the season with the unchanged squad and leave how we will finish to a chance.

[Exiled_red]

It is because of this.

We are terrible as of late in terms of creating goal scoring chances not only in terms of scoring but I am still surprised that we did not bring anybody in not even on a loan.

It is quite ironic to me for a club that has the worst conversion rate like us that we decided to go into the second half of the season with the unchanged squad and leave how we will finish to a chance.

I was saying to a mate over Christmas that I thought we needed a striker more this January than we did last January when it became apparent Torres was leaving, before signing Carroll.

[Corndog]

I think the reason is that many teams come to anfield with a cautious approach, we dominate them in possesion and swing in loads of crosses, have lots of attempts on goal, but never convert them.

for me it boils down to one vital problem...we create loads of chances, but how many of them are clear cut? i struggle to remember the last time i saw somebody being played through for a one on one with the opposition keeper (something we used to do all the time with Torres, especially when we finished 2nd in the league.)

[Red_Polo]

Lots of reasons for us underperforming, but specific to home games for me are...

-Mentally fragile players not taking enough creative responsibility, exacerbated in front of the pressure of a home crowd.

-Lacking players with outstanding technical ability and control in tight spaces meaning we struggle when teams come to sit back and play for a point.

[Muddled]

Lots of reasons for us underperforming, but specific to home games for me are...

-Mentally fragile players not taking enough creative responsibility, exacerbated in front of the pressure of a home crowd.

-Lacking players with outstanding technical ability and control in tight spaces meaning we struggle when teams come to sit back and play for a point.

Some good points, particularly the last; some of our approach play in the middle of the park is very good when we get hold of the game - the angles we create and some of the first touch passing is great to see and it is apparent in the team from Reina, through the defence and in to the midfield.

However, because of your first point, when the ball is played out wide, this is when we lose some of our impetus; the decision making and the laboured touch shown as the game progresses is clear to see. It's no coincidence that if we get an early goal, we grow in to the game and take control of it, but when chasing a game our composure is shot.

When it comes to our attack, I think it's as simple as getting numbers in the box; we play Carroll and he drops deep to link up the play - if successful, he doesn't bust a gut to get back in to the box (until recently). If we play Suarez, he also drops deep but then usually goes wide. This means we need our wide players to push infield from the opposite flank - Kuyt does it when Suarez drifts left, but Downing stays wide when Suarez goes right.

This in turn also highlights a lack of support from the middle of the park; for me Lucas has become instrumental in allowing the one (or two) alongside him, the freedom to go with the ball. Without Lucas, we are sticking square pegs in round holes to cover his absence. Spearing is the nerarest, but lacks the ability to read the game, so we compensate this by playing Gerrard alongside him sacrificing the link between midfield and attack, or putting the onus on Henderson to do that role.

I like Henderson, I love his ability to see the early ball and his quickness of thought, as well as his control and general neatness, but he desperately needs to add a bit of tenacity to his game (kinda what he showed at the end of the game on the weekend, at Evra) and he also needs to stay central, as apposed to drifting right if the game is passing him by - we can't afford any passengers at this moment in time.

Who'd have thunk the crux of our problem is in the centre of the park going by the summer, when questions were being asked about 'another midfielder'.