adminLONDON. — Liverpool have the English Premiership trophy in their cabinet once again and, by the time they won it again last month, 239 players had been used and more than £1.47bn was spent.
Between the time they won it in 1990 and when they were confirmed as champions last month, Liverpool had played 1 149 games, since the start of the 1990-91 season — that is 103 410 minutes (not including injury time) spent on the pitch.
They have won 595 of those matches (which is a win percentage of around 52%), scored 1 968 goals (for an overall goal difference of +822) and took 2,075 points.
However, all but 28 of those wins, 70 of those goals and 86 of those points were ultimately amassed in a vain attempt at league glory.
The highest number of points they claimed from a single opponent, over the three decades, are the 108 points they have taken off Tottenham from 60 encounters between the two.
They have won 105 points against Everton, while West Ham have been plundered for 101.
They have a 100% win record against Brighton, Cardiff, Huddersfield and Notts County, although the most number of times they have faced any of those sides is the five games they have played against the Seagulls.
Unsurprisingly, the sides that have done the most consistent damage to Liverpool’s title aspirations since 1990-91 are Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal — all multiple title winners during the Reds’ barren three decades.
Gallingly for Liverpool, they have just a 29.3% win percentage against fierce rivals United, who have beaten them 28 times in their 58 games since 1990-91.
United also have comfortably the best goal difference against them too, with it currently standing at +8 in the Red Devils’ favour.
Birmingham (21.4% win percentage against) and Wimbledon (26.3%) have both been thorns in the Reds’ side.
There is only one team against whom Liverpool have played in the top-flight and failed to take a single point in the past 30 seasons — Blackpool, who beat them home and away in their one Premier League campaign in 2010-11.
Of course, no Liverpool season, of the last 30, have matched 2019-20 for efficiency. In fact, no league campaign in English history is comparable to Liverpool’s current one.
Since the start of the 1990-91 season, 239 players have represented Liverpool in the top-flight.
Their quest for a 19th title began with a 3-1 win at Sheffield United on 25 August 1990, the goals scored by John Barnes, Ray Houghton and Ian Rush.
Almost 30 years later, the job was finally completed without the need to step onto the field after Manchester City failed to beat Chelsea, finally ending a title race which in truth had been over for months.
Of those 239 players, academy product Jamie Carragher made the most league appearances in a Liverpool shirt in the past 30 years, playing in 508 games for the club.
At the opposite end of the scale is a group of former players who contributed just one appearance to the cause – the likes of Daniele Padelli, David Raven, Jon Newby, Patrice Luzi, Istvan Kozma and Rafael Camacho.
The goalscorers list is also topped by a home-grown talent in Robbie Fowler, who scored 128 league goals for the club over two spells.
There is a much healthier modern presence, with current first-choice front three Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah all making the top 10.
One player deserving special recognition is Steven Gerrard, an individual intrinsically linked with Liverpool’s long pursuit of their 19th title, for both positive and negative reasons.
The midfielder and captain is a presence on both appearance and goals list, and has also contributed the most assists of any Liverpool player in the past 30 years (70).
Liverpool’s first bit of transfer business following their 1989-90 title win was to make Ronny Rosenthal’s loan move from Standard Liege permanent for a fee of around £1m.
The Israeli striker, a cult figure at Anfield, would be the first of 218 signings the club would make between their 18th and 19th league triumphs, concluding with the £7.25m capture of Takumi Minamino in the last January window.
Inevitably, there has been the good, the bad and the ugly.
For every Luis Suarez or Virgil van Dijk, there is a Torben Piechnik, a Bruno Cheyrou and a Sean Dundee.
And then there are the big-money disasters, more often than not failing forwards, like Andy Carroll (£35m, six goals in 44 league games), Christian Benteke (£32.5m, nine in 29) or Mario Balotelli (£16m, one in 16).
Inevitably, the bills have added up over the past 30 years and according to figures from Transfer market, the club have spent an estimated £1.47bn on players between their 18th and 19th titles.
It is important to note the Reds have also recouped a sizeable amount of money through player sales, reportedly £936.6m over those 30 years. — BBC Sport.
Online Reporter