Why Arne Slot's Liverpool Struggle With Duel Statistics (and why it won't change)

Liverpool players losing duels has become a theme of 2024/25. There are several significant issues behind their numbers though.

Football narratives are often started with relative ease. Maintaining them can be even simpler. Maybe Anfield is quiet or perhaps Trent Alexander-Arnold can’t defend, or possibly Gary Neville holds these views and would love it if you did too.

It isn’t always the media who steer the conversation. Liverpool’s inability to win duels has been a theme of this season since Arne Slot’s first post-match press conference with the club. He mentioned the issue in explaining why he withdrew Jarell Quansah during the half time interval at Portman Road.

The day after the Reds’ lost the Carabao Cup final to Newcastle, there was no shortage of analysis which focussed upon the team’s duel record. Does this metric explain why Liverpool were beaten at Wembley or were outplayed by Paris Saint-Germain?

Let’s ask Opta Analyst, whose article included the following:

“In total this season, Liverpool have only won more than 50% of their duels in 15 of their 47 games, and have only done so three times in their last 17 games in all competitions.”

This trend was highlighted for the Reds’ Premier League matches via a graphic in a similar piece on Sky Sports:

Let’s disregard that the line is rarely more than one per game either side of zero for now. The commentary in the article contained other statistics which made similar points:

“In the last fortnight, Liverpool have registered three of their five lowest duel success rates all season… The issue was most pronounced away against Paris Saint-Germain, when Liverpool won just 32.5 per cent of the game's duels, the club's lowest success rate on record in the Champions League.”

Frame the issue how ever you choose. The theme is that Liverpool’s statistics for duels have not been outstanding at any point this season, getting worse in recent weeks as their hopes of winning multiple trophies disintegrated.

It may be that the club has a problem and it may be that it predates 2024/25. Jürgen Klopp occasionally highlighted the issue when he was in charge, after all. But digging into the data makes it apparent that it would be something of a miracle if Liverpool ever had a strong duel figure over a long period.