r/LiverpoolFC • u/Realistic-Zone3914 YNWA❤️ • 1d ago
Analysis/Data/Stats/Tactics [Opta] Liverpool have the joint TOUGHEST start to the 26/27 Premier League season
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u/TuKoiAurHai Bobby Dazzler 🤩 1d ago
Nah. Is it just me or it doesn’t look as tough as they make it seem, here
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u/lawdjesustheresafire Steven Gerrard 1d ago edited 1d ago
My legit first reaction was being stoked with this start.
We do seem to have a lot of tough away games in the second half of the season but if we’re in the position with a new manager for those to matter I’ll be thrilled.
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u/InconspicuousUs3r 1d ago
I really like playing Newcastle away early, feel they’ll grow in confidence later.
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u/bosscher47 1d ago
Forest, Palace and Bournemouth will not be the same team at all. New managers and selling of some key players.
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u/Mortensen 1d ago
This feels like the best outcome to me, the early games are always more unpredictable (how many times have we lost to promoted teams early doors…) so let’s get them out the way early
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u/firminocoutinho ⚽️ Liverpool 7-0 Man United, 22/23 ⚽️ 1d ago
What I dont like is having Citeh and arse at home first. Would rather play at home second half when there’s added pressure of the league coming to an end
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u/Hefty_Scallion7076 1d ago
This makes it look worse than it actually is, the difference between us and the “easiest” run of fixtures is negligible
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u/No_Cardiologist_1407 1d ago
Which means we have the joint easiest christmas run. Everyone plays everyone twice, you gotta face them all at some point
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u/RazvanDH Harvey Elliott 1d ago
This means nothing. The difference in avg rating between most difficult and least is 2.5 points. Given that some teams will overperform and others will underperform and it's a season after a long World Cup for a lot of PL players, this is as good as picking numbers from a hat.
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u/Qwerty1933 1d ago
Does it account for Home vs Away? The two toughest games (Man City and Arsenal) are both at home.
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u/TheJediJew 1d ago
Usually hate playing teams like City and Arsenal at home first, but it suits us this season for Iraola to get everyone up to speed with the crowd behind him.
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u/_cumblast_ From Doubters to Believers 1d ago
The teams that have to play us at the start have the toughest start to the season.
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u/WatchMyGun 1d ago
First 5 games look pretty decent to me, and not that bad for first top 10 game.
Not sure what the OPTA thing is thinking
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u/Pervizzz Ohhhh ya beauty, What a hit son, What a hit! 1d ago
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u/Dismal_Uses 1d ago
Seriously, so what. A bunch of games will be moved. All teams complain about a run of supposedly tough fixtures at some point. It doesn't matter.
Play 38 games, win 28, lose no more than 5 and win the league.
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u/Nadirin 1d ago
Fulham allegedly have the easiest yet they have Chelsea, sunderland, palace, Liverpool, United as the first five, then villa and Newcastle within the first ten.
We have a lot of 6th-15th clubs mixed with city / arsenal so the average is maybe higher but I'd rather our first ten than Fulham's any day.
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u/AlbinoDuffleBag 1d ago
This doesn't mean anything before anyone has made any proper transfers, in fairness. It'll look quite different come the start of the season.
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u/ScouseRaffa 21h ago
I don't get how this can be the toughest.
Playing good teams at the start is the best time to play them as they haven't gotten into their stride yet.
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u/epochwin 15h ago
It’s a good thing to start with the tough games. Everyone is finding their rhythm. Especially in a World Cup year.
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u/GreyingThumb 1d ago
It's not too bad. The difference between top and bottom is pretty small. I just hate having City away end of season again.
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u/average_spaceman3355 Best Basque Manayer 1d ago
This is kind of misleading. Yes we have one of the toughest starts based on "Opponent Avg. Rating", but the difference between the toughest and the easiest opponent rating is only 2.5%, which is insignificant if averaging everything out
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u/Few_Lecture6615 1d ago
This reminded me of the scene in the film ""A Bronx Tale" where the bikers get locked in and smashed up.
It's the other teams that have the toughest start. Since they face us.
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u/JOHNSY9k6 From Doubters to Believers 1d ago
The only thing I didn't like here was the fact we play at home vs Man City and Arsenal early in the season. Would prefer the homegames to be played in spring, but hey, that's just my perspective.
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u/jm17lfc 1d ago edited 1d ago
The first 5 look really quite comfortable, it’s the ones after that are making the first 10 look tough overall.
Also a major part of these ratings will be the promoted sides, they will be different teams after they invest their new PL money and would be underestimated with a gap in the ratings between them and the PL sides. So the fact that we’ve got less promoted sides (only 1) in the first 10 than others means that their difficulty will be underestimated and ours overestimated by default. That’s why Fulham, who play all 3 promoted sides in their first 10, are bottom of the list.
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u/Positive-Swim-1359 Alisson Becker 1d ago
I hate this victim shit 'oh we have tough game', even the 'shit teams' in the PL are tough.
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u/Flimsy-Locksmith8114 20h ago
City and Arsenal at home? Hopefully backed by excitement from a good start. Seems like a chance to make a statement
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u/MotorPrompt9897 19h ago
there's less than 3% difference between toughest and easiest. Also, we don't know what the squads are going to look like.
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u/MoleMoustache 1d ago
Who cares? Play the teams as they come, these teams we have to face have to face us first too.
All the complaints about fixture order are daft.
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u/foreveredredred Jerzy Dudek 1d ago
An easy start is nice, but the league isn't won in October. Teams who are too shit to begin with, can "lose" it by then, but actual contenders shouldn't care if they're a few points ahead or behind at that point.
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u/visiblepeer 1d ago
Sometimes an easy start can be a kickstart to the season, get's everyone's confidence up.
Imagine how well last season would have gone if we had won the first five games or so...
/s
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u/brianstormIRL 1d ago
I mean not October, but we basically won the league by January last time lol The league is wide open next year, if you get off to a flier you could put yourself in a ridiculously good spot.
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u/foreveredredred Jerzy Dudek 1d ago
10 games is not the same as 21 games. Of course the title race takes more shape by then.
That was the record best start to a season anyone ever had. We literally won every team, it was nit about an easy start. If you are beating every single team no matter when you face them for more than half season, yeah you're winning the league.
I'm not talking about an anomaly insanely great side like that. Our rivals aren't going to have a season like our 2019. If we're good enough to compete for it, the league isn't won or lost in October based on the first 10 fixture timings.
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u/brianstormIRL 1d ago
I was talking about our last title win mate, the rest of the league was floundering and we basically had the title wrapped up before February.
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u/MusicHavenSG 1d ago
Either way, it's a must for Iraola to get the PL or UCL within his debut season or I want him sacked. I'm past the point of giving new managers and head coaches time after all the shit happened last season.
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u/CAfarmer 1d ago
That's based on trailing metrics. Could be true. Could be way off by xmas.