‘Embarrassing quirk’ – Sky reporter shares damning Liverpool statistic that Slot ‘cannot ignore’

Sky Sports reporter Lewis Jones drew attention to the mind-blowing fact that, in their last 19 away matches across all competitions, Liverpool have scored just four goals prior to half-time.

He wrote: ‘Liverpool’s away-day malaise is becoming less of a blip and more of a pattern that Arne Slot cannot ignore. There’s a passivity to their first-half approach on the road that feels at odds with the club’s identity that was so exciting under Jurgen Klopp.

‘A team built on intensity, front-foot football and early statement-making now are drifting through opening periods as if waiting for the game to come to them.

‘Another blank before the break against Manchester United only sharpened the concern. That’s now just four goals in their last 19 first halves. A staggering drop-off for a side packed with attacking quality and expectation. It’s not just misfiring finishing, it’s a collective lack of urgency. The tempo is slow, the pressing disjointed and too often Liverpool are reactive rather than proactive.

‘For a club that should be chasing major honours, it’s an embarrassing quirk to what has been a wretched season.’

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That is downright embarrassing for Liverpool

Scoring just four first-half goals in 19 away matches is embarrassing in its own right, and it looks even worse when considering that two of those came in the 45th minute or in stoppage time.

To put it into an even more humiliating context, Nottingham Forest scored as many first-half goals in a 20-minute spell at Sunderland recently as Liverpool have managed in 19 matches across the last six months.

Liverpool first-half goals in away matches since 26 October 2025

The Reds frequently made a slow start to games last season, too, but often showed their powers of recovery to come from behind and claim victory. That has all too rarely been the case this term, with the 5-1 thumping of Eintracht Frankfurt among the few exceptions.

Mercifully, LFC only have one more away match in this campaign (against Aston Villa the weekend after next), and if they start that game as feebly as they did at Old Trafford yesterday, Unai Emery’s side could have an absolute field day.

The statistic highlighted by Jones is something that, if Slot is still Liverpool’s head coach in 2026/27, he simply must rectify.