Arne Slot’s Liverpool lack intensity and the numbers prove it, Beto’s big chances and Raul Jimenez’s penalty record | Football News

Welcome to The Debrief, a Sky Sports column in which Adam Bate uses a blend of data and opinion to reflect on some of the key stories from the latest Premier League matches. This week:

• Liverpool’s running and pressing statistics
• Beto’s ability to get big chances for Everton
• Jimenez is the Premier League penalty king

What happened to Liverpool’s intensity?

An inability to maintain the levels has been a feature of Liverpool’s season under Arne Slot. His team lacked intensity in their lacklustre showing against Brighton on Saturday lunchtime but perhaps the seeds of that poor performance were sown in midweek.

“Every game should be the same,” said Dominik Szoboszlai after the 4-0 win over Galatasaray. “It is difficult because Champions League nights are under the lights at Anfield, good weather and a nice pitch. To go to Brighton, a 12.30pm kick-off, it is not the same.”

Being there in Slot’s press conference after that emphatic win in Europe on Wednesday night, it was striking that even on a positive night for the club, the head coach also had a negative slant on things. He was already downplaying expectations against Brighton.

“We would like us to perform every single time at this level. Unfortunately, for the fifth or sixth time now, I think we only get two days’ rest to go to Brighton, early kick-off. For me, that’s not good. Players get injured in this period because it is such a tight schedule.”

He continued: “We should have been given a bit more rest, but that hasn’t happened a lot. So, Brighton is an intense team we’re going to face and we will bring the best game possible again on Saturday, but you cannot compare Brighton to Galatasaray.”

The Liverpool manager will likely feel vindicated in his concerns given that Mohamed Salah was not fit enough to take part in the game and Hugo Ekitike bowed out of it early on with an injury. The 2-1 defeat leaves them outside of the top four with seven to play.

But as one former Liverpool player put it in a Premier League press room over the weekend, Slot made the mistake of alluding to the dreaded T word. If you tell football players that they are entitled to feel tired then it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There is some suggestion that Liverpool have been trying to manage their workload all season and that this has impacted the team’s tactics. Certainly, the pressing game of old has gone. For fans, a side once famed for its intensity has become unrecognisable.

The running stats tell some of the tale. Liverpool had ranked top of the Premier League for distance covered in the Premier League during Jurgen Klopp’s first full season in charge. This season, they are in the bottom three for the first time since such records began.

It is a crude statistic, really. Liverpool were ranked 16th for distance covered last season and won the title, after all. But it can be considered illustrative of a trend in the team’s evolution. Liverpool’s energy was once their hallmark. Now they are a different side.

Examine the PPDA numbers, measuring passes allowed per defensive action. Long regarded as a measure of a team’s pressing, of their intensity off the ball, Liverpool ranked top for PPDA in their last great season under Klopp. Now they are down in eighth.

Slot favours a slower, more controlled possession game, but then bemoans Liverpool’s inability to break down defences. He laments the rising importance of set pieces, but then sees Thomas Gronnemark, their old throw-in coach, working with leaders Arsenal.

The win over Galatasaray was a reminder that this team are at their best when they play at a higher tempo, channelling the Liverpool of old. Their inability or unwillingness to do this under Slot – physically, mentally and tactically – has been a problem for them all season.

Beto brilliant at getting big chances

Sitting in David Moyes’ press conference after Everton’s 3-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday, it was possible to see a little smirk on the Scot’s face when he was asked about recent comments by Brentford owner Matthew Benham in regard to his striker.

“When we played Everton at our place last year, Beto missed three one-on-ones,” said Benham at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. “Any decent data model worth its salt would give Beto an upgrade.” By which he meant value him more highly.

“That is the case for any player who happens to make three one-on-ones in a game, even if they miss them. Typically, the odds are 50/50 that you will score. You might say he is less efficient but the fact he is getting the positions for the shot is more important.”

Nobody needs to tell this to the Everton manager. Last season, from the time that Moyes returned to the club in January 2025 to the end of that season, no player in the Premier League missed more clear-cut chances. Beto’s goals lifted Everton to safety, nevertheless.

Moyes remembers one of his first games in charge. “I think he had five one-on-ones with goalkeepers, and I am thinking, you don’t get one-on-ones with goalkeepers too often.” Beto does. As Benham correctly identifies, it is a skill. And this man is world-class at it.

There are only four other current Premier League players to have played at least 3,000 minutes in the competition who are averaging at least one big chance per 90 minutes. Those players are Erling Haaland, Alexander Isak, Gabriel Jesus and Mohamed Salah.

“Very few players get those opportunities,” Moyes explained. “Some days you walk off shaking your head thinking, oh my goodness, but there are other days you go off thinking this boy is all heart, effort and trying to make it work and he is getting his rewards for it.”

Against Chelsea, he had already unsettled Robert Sanchez in the opening minutes when dispossessing the goalkeeper near his own line. Everton’s intensity was too much for their opponents but it took a classy finish from Beto to find the breakthrough goal.

If the touch was uncharacteristically deft, the sight of Beto galloping through on goal was trademark stuff. His second goal took the game away from Chelsea and the Portuguese forward later received a standing ovation at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Although Moyes also credited Beto for his improved link-up play, even assisting the third goal, Everton fans know the player’s limitations. But they appreciate his endeavour too. “He is a great boy to work with, incredibly humble, tries to improve himself every day.”

In truth, Beto’s pass completion rate is among the lowest around and those rough edges will never leave him. But when supporters dream of an ‘upgrade’ they must be mindful that the list of players who manage to get on the end of things more than Beto is short.

Is Jimenez the penalty king now?

Martin Dubravka actually got a hand to Raul Jimenez’s late penalty in Fulham’s 3-1 win over Burnley on Saturday but he could only get a feather-like touch on the ball. As a result, the veteran Mexican striker extended his perfect penalty record in the Premier League.

The sequences now stands at 14 from 14 for Jimenez. The next best perfect record in the competition is 11 from 11 by Yaya Toure followed by Dimitar Berbatov’s nine from nine. For the foreseeable future, this is Jimenez’s record to lose. But will he? He has mastered his art.

The Mexican opts for a goalkeeper-dependent strategy, staring down his opponent while having the technical proficiency to adjust his finish without looking at the ball. It is a difficult skill but means there is less that can go wrong if the taker can keep their cool.

Is he the best ever? That is debatable. Some might factor in the pressure on the penalty – a stoppage-time goal against Burnley when already leading would not rank highly on that measure. But the maths would suggest this strike tipped the numbers in his favour.

Based on probability, using Opta’s expected-goals model that states the odds of scoring from the spot are 79 per cent, Jimenez’s record of scoring 14 from 14 is now slightly more statistically unlikely than Matthew Le Tissier’s record of 25 from 26 in the Premier League.

It is hard to believe that Andreas Pereira was preferred to Jimenez as Fulham’s penalty taker at the start of last season. Marco Silva learned his lesson. Finding someone reliable from the spot can make the difference – and he is as reliable as they come.

Jimenez, 35 in May, now has nine Premier League goals this season in total – only nine players have scored more. Having netted seven in his first season for Fulham and 12 in his second, he has been a bargain buy since joining from Wolves for just £5.5m.

His contract is up at the end of the season, although there is talk of interest from elsewhere in the Premier League. But if Jimenez’s English adventure is coming to an end, he is now looking increasingly likely to depart with his perfect penalty record intact.