Another game, another defeat for Liverpool, this time at the hands of Brentford.
Here are our Scout Notes from the Gtech Community Stadium.
- READ MORE: FPL notes – Maresca on Pedro, Enzo + Caicedo “injury problems”
- READ MORE: FPL notes – Woltemade post, Gordon unlucky + Bruno’s threat
SALAH ENDS DROUGHT – CAN HE KICK ON?
Is Mohamed Salah (£14.3m) ‘back’? You’d have to say, ignoring his brilliantly taken goal on Saturday, not really.
It was another poor showing from the Egyptian overall, not that he was alone in that regard.
Looking short of confidence, his first touch was sorely lacking, his shots lacked conviction, and several Liverpool attacks broke down as a result of his miscontrol.
Then, almost out of nowhere, a superbly taken 89th-minute strike. Perhaps the control and shot were executed so well because he didn’t have time to think about it, so no overdwelling.
For his sake, hopefully he can use that goal – his first from open play since Gameweek 1 – as a springboard for his season.
Encouragingly, the underlying numbers are getting better. His best four Gameweeks for non-penalty expected goal involvement (NPxGI) have been the last four, culminating in Saturday’s match:
SZOBOSZLAI TOPS THE MIDFIELDER DEFCONS PILE
One of the only bright spots in this Liverpool season is the performances of Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.5m).
Mr Versatile started this match in the engine room before moving to right-back and finally back to midfield.
Dragging the Reds by their bootstraps at times, it was his pressing and dispossession that resulted in Salah scoring that late goal. Szoboszlai not only bagged the assist but also three bonus points, his all-round display helping him to the maximum bonus reward.
In fact, the Hungarian racked up a whopping 22 defensive contributions on Saturday, which means he has more of those this season than any other FPL midfielder:
Eight DefCon points have come about because of this.
While he is on corners, he is (understandably, given his oft-deeper roles) a little bit lacking in attacking threat, with a season-long xGI of 2.06 only the fifth-best among Liverpool players.
On the subject of DefCon points, Virgil van Dijk (£6.0m) now has 12 of those this season. That’s a tally that only two FPL defenders can better.
LIVERPOOL STRUGGLE AGAINST DIRECT SIDE AGAIN
Shame van Dijk can’t marry DefCon points with clean sheets.
Another shut-out went up in smoke as early as the fifth minute on Saturday, meaning it’s just two clean sheets for the campaign. Just six sides have fewer.
As a further indictment of the backline, Liverpool remarkably now sit 20th in the table for big chances conceded (BC, below):
The naivety of the defending is alarming. There’s little new about Brentford’s approach; Liverpool only had to look at the Bees’ recent win over Manchester United for a lesson on what not to do. Yet, here, they did it.
A goal conceded from a long throw, poked in by Dango Ouattara (£6.0m). A brilliant, penetrating ball from deep, much like Jordan Henderson‘s (£5.0m) against United, saw Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.8m) set Kevin Schade (£7.0m) away for Brentford’s second. Set plays and direct balls: not exactly unexpected.
There were plenty of other openings, too, with Dango wasting a couple of very good headed chances (again, from badly defended crosses) and a poor touch letting Igor Thiago (£6.2m) down when he was unmarked in the box.
“Teams have a certain playing style against us, which is a very good strategy to play and we haven’t found an answer yet.” – Arne Slot
THIAGO BACK ON PENS
Joint-second in the Golden Boot ‘race’, and now second among FPL forwards for points.
Thiago bagged 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 haven’t got the best two matches coming up next but, after the November international break, it’s a pretty decent run till Christmas:
