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In a new weekly column, statistician Andrew Beasley picks apart the numbers at Anfield and brings the deepest insight into what Jurgen Klopp is doing at Anfield.

You can follow him on Twitter on @Basstunedtored.

Liverpool got their 2018/19 campaign up and running in fine style with a 4-0 win over West Ham United at Anfield. Goals from Mohamed Salah, Daniel Sturridge, and a brace from Sadio Mané did the damage.

The second goal for Liverpool’s new number 10 was different from the other three, not least in having the fortune of not being ruled out when it probably should’ve been. But it was also from outside the six yard box, when the other three were all converted from very close range.

In total, the Reds had six shots from inside the six yard box. Salah and Mané each had a pair, while Sturridge and Roberto Firmino had one each. That may not sound all that impressive, but having so many is actually really rare.

For instance, Liverpool averaged 1.2 shots from six yards or closer per league match last season. Again, that doesn’t sound like many but it compared reasonably well to the figures posted by Europe’s elite teams. Manchester City averaged 1.5, as did Barcelona, while Bayern Munich had 1.4 per game and Real Madrid averaged 1.3.

In Italy, it was actually Alisson’s former side Roma who lead the way with 1.3 six yard shots per game, while Juventus averaged 0.9.

And while these figures are season-long averages, having six in one game will be very rare. It’s certainly new territory for Jurgen Klopp’sLiverpool in the Premier League. In the manager’s first 106 league games across the last three seasons his side’s previous best was three shots in the six yard box, and they only managed that eight times. The most common total was zero, which happened on 41 occasions.

But why am I telling you all of this? Because of how often shots from close range are scored.

Expected goals is not a universally popular stat. It was introduced to the Match Of The Day post-match stats last season, but a search of Twitter certainly shows it’s not to everyone’s taste.

(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Even if expected goals aren’t for you, the simple, unsurprising fact is that the closer a shot is to goal, the more likely it is to be scored. For example, roughly three percent of shots from outside the area are converted. As much as Philippe Coutinho had a world-class effort in him at times, plenty of his long range shots went nowhere near the goal.

Move into the goal area (excluding the six yard box) and 13 percent of shots find the back of the net. As they include penalties, for other shots in that zone it’s a 12 percent conversion rate.

(Image: Screenshot from Whoscored.com)

However, one in three shots in the six yard box find the back of the net. They really are that important and while we can’t expect Liverpool to have six every week – not everyone will play such a generously high line as West Ham – the good news is they were created by a variety of players and from different methods.

James Milner crossed for a close range Firmino effort in the 18th minute, before a pass from Andy Robertson assisted the opening goal one minute later. Firmino then later provided a pass across the box for Salah to shoot, before a Milner pull-back for Mané saw the Reds go two up in first half injury time.

Two second half corners then lead to close range shots. Salah crossed for Mané, before Milner’s corner was volleyed home by Daniel Sturridge with his first touch of the match. If Liverpool can continue to carve teams apart this well, then the goals will flow like water this season.