The Elite Strikers

Can Christian Benteke Join Liverpool's Elite Strikers?

"I know Liverpool is a big story. They’ve won league titles and the Champions League five times..." Christian Benteke.

Image from @bentekechris20

A warm welcome to Christian Benteke. All Liverpool fans hope that Christian will join the elite group of Liverpool strikers that have scored 20 or more league goals in a season.

Liverpool have been blessed with some great goal scorers. Even 'God' played up front. However, as you will see, it is a big challenge to join the elite strikers.

This article was also published here on lfchistory.net on 27th July 2015.

A Striking Trio

Barcelona's Treble Top

Congratulations to Barcelona (especially Luis Suarez) on winning the treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and UEFA Champions league in 2014-15. Barca's front line of Messi, Neymar and Suarez have been hailed as the best ever striking trio. In La Liga the trio scored 81 goals, with Messi scoring 43, Neymar 22 and Suarez 16.

This got me thinking: who were Liverpool's best ever striking trio in the league? I analysed the data from lfchistory.net to find the total goals by a striking trio in a top level league season. The graph shows a summary, with the top 10 scores highlighted.

 And the winner is (drum roll)…

From Rafa To Rodgers

LFC Data Analysis of Seasons 2004-05 to 2014-15

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."  Benjamin Disraeli

This post describes Liverpool Football Club's premier league performance in seasons 2004-05 to 2014-15 with graphs generated from publicly available data. The seasons cover 11 years, from Rafael Benitez' first match of season 2004-05 in August 2004 to Brendan Rodgers' final match of season 2014-15 in May 2015.

Hopefully the graphs and narrative will make you think about the highs and lows. It's hard for any Liverpool fan to look back over these 11 premier league seasons without some trauma. Just think about Istanbul if it get too difficult ;-).

The analysis also places Rodgers' performance in context. It remains to be seen if he will survive the run of poor results in the final quarter of 2014-15, culminating in the Stoke debacle.

In his final season in 2014-15 Steven Gerrard was Liverpool's top league scorer with 9 goals. This is equal to the lowest ever total by a top scoring Liverpool striker since Liverpool were founded in 1892. Steven joins 2 other top scoring strikers with 9 league goals: Milan Baros in 2004-05 and Jack Cox in 1903-04.

Whoever is in charge next season it is clear that Liverpool must do what they should have done in the summer of 2014 following Suarez' departure - take a risk and invest in a quality striker.

This article was first published on 26th May 2015. It was also published here on lfchistory.net on 3rd June 2015.