This week, Rangers manager Steven Gerrard responded to rumours that he was in pole position to replace Jurgen Klopp as the Liverpool manager when the German decides to step down (Daily Record). The fact that Gerrard is even being linked with the job is a huge testament to the work that he has done in Scotland.
Both teams seem to be unbeatable at the moment with Rangers only suffering two losses this season. Liverpool have lost just one game and top the Premier League by eight points (Sky Sports). But how similar are Klopp and Gerrard’s teams? Let’s take a look at the statistics.
TIF Tactics – Rangers vs Liverpool head-to-head
Of course, with Liverpool being the defending champions of Europe the two teams are miles apart in terms of overall quality. However, there might be similarities in the statistics that allow us to draw parallels between Gerrard and Klopp’s systems. We will just be looking at the statistics to the beginning of the 2019/2020 season for this comparison.
Both teams command a majority of possession in their games with Liverpool taking 60.73% of possession on average and Rangers owning 62.3% of the possession in their games. Both teams share similar accuracies regarding their passing as well, with Liverpool averaging 609.63 passes per game with an 86.4% accuracy, while Rangers make 560.03 passes per game, with an 86% accuracy.
Liverpool average 2.41 goals per game, while Rangers average 2.57. They also produce similar numbers regarding their shots on target. While Liverpool produce 15.44 shots on target on average, with a 39.8% accuracy, Rangers average 17.7 shots per game, with a 40.7% accuracy.
Defensively, however, Rangers seem to be more sound. The Gers only concede 0.47 goals per game on average, allowing 6.4 shots against. Liverpool, on the other hand, concede 1.37 goals per game, allowing 8.93 shots on target. And while this may be a credit to Rangers’ defending, it is important to point out that Liverpool are facing much tougher competition in the Premier League and in European competitions.
There has also been a lot of praise regarding Klopp’s use of full-backs going forward (Liverpool Echo). Rangers’ right-back, James Tavernier, has 10 assists so far this season. There left-back, Borna Barisic, has eight. This makes them the two highest contributors to the team in terms of assists (transfermarkt.co.uk). The reliance on full-backs going forward is one of the strongest comparisons between the two managers’ systems.
With the way that modern football is developing, it is nearly impossible to clearly make distinctions between Gerrard and Klopp’s teams using just statistics. However, the data outlined above suggests that should Gerrard ever make the move back to Anfield, he wouldn’t be out of depth.
(all data and stats from Wyscout.com, accurate at the time of writing)