Another game, another defeat for Liverpool, this time at the hands of Brentford.
Here are our scout notes from Gtech Community Stadium.
SALAH FINISHES DRY – CAN HE CONTINUE to kick?
Is Mohammed Salah (£14.3m) ‘back’? You’d say, ignoring his brilliantly taken goal on Saturday, not really.
It was another poor performance from the Egyptian, not that he was alone in that regard.
He appeared to lack confidence, but his first touch was severely lacking, his shots were unconvincing and several Liverpool attacks failed as a result of his miscontrol.
Then, almost out of nowhere, a superbly taken goal in the 89th minute. Maybe the control and shot were executed so well because he it didn’t I have time to think about it, so don’t overdo it.
Hopefully he can use that goal – his first from open play since Gameweek 1 – as a springboard for his season.
It is encouraging that the underlying figures are improving. His best four gameweeks for expected goal involvement without penalties (NPxGI) were the last four, highlighted by Saturday’s match:
SZOBOSZLAI IS AT THE TOP OF THE PILE OF THE MIDFIELDERS
One of the few bright spots in this Liverpool season has been the performance of Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.5 million).
Mr Versatile started this match in the engine room before moving to right back and eventually back to midfield.
While he dragged the Reds to their boots at times, it was his pressure and dispossession that led to Salah scoring that late goal. Szoboszlai not only picked up the assist, but also three bonus points, with his all-round performance helping him earn the maximum bonus reward.
In fact, the Hungarian made a whopping 22 defensive contributions on Saturday, meaning he has more than any other FPL midfielder this season:
This resulted in eight DefCon points.
While at corner positions, he (understandably given his often deeper roles) lacks a bit of attacking threat, with a season-long xGI of 2.06 only fifth best among Liverpool players.
Regarding DefCon points: Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) now has twelve this season. That’s a figure that only two FPL defenders can improve.
LIVERPOOL FIGHT AGAINST DIRECT SIDE
Too bad Van Dijk can’t combine DefCon points with clean sheets.
Another shutout went up in smoke in the fifth minute on Saturday, meaning it is only two clean sheets for the campaign. Only six parties have fewer.
In further indictment of the backline, Liverpool now remarkably rank 20th in terms of big chances awarded (BC, below):
The naivety of the defense is alarming. There is little new about Brentford’s approach; Liverpool only had to look at the Bees’ recent win over Manchester United for a lesson in what not to do. Yet they did it here.
A goal conceded from a long throw, poked in Dango Ouattara (£6.0 million). A brilliant, penetrating ball from deep, just like Jordan Henderson‘s (£5.0m) against United, saw Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.8 million) set Kevin Damage (£7.0m) removed for Brentford’s second. Set plays and direct balls: not exactly unexpected.
There were plenty of other openings too, with Dango squandering some very good headed chances (again due to poorly defended crosses) and poor ball striking. Igor Thiago (£6.2 million) while it was in the box unnoticed.
“Teams have a certain playing style against us, which is a very good strategy to play and we haven’t found an answer to that yet.” – Arne Slot
THIAGO BACK ON PENS
Joint second in the Golden Boot ‘race’, and now second among FPL forwards for points.
Thiago scored his sixth goal of 2025/26 on Saturday, converting from the spot. That was his first penalty since Gameweek 1; in between, Schade had unsuccessfully stepped up from 12 yards at Sunderland in Gameweek 3.
He and his teammates don’t have the next two best games, but after the November international break it’s a pretty decent run until Christmas:
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