Welcome to The Debrief, a Sky Sports column in which Adam Bate uses a blend of data and opinion to reflect on some key Premier League stories this week: Liverpool’s running and pressing statistics; Beto’s ability to get big chances for Everton; and Raul Jimenez’s Premier League penalty record.
What happened to Liverpool’s intensity?
An inability to maintain levels has been a feature of Liverpool’s season under Arne Slot. His team lacked intensity in a lacklustre showing at Brighton, but the seeds of that performance may have been sown in midweek. “Every game should be the same,” Dominik Szoboszlai said after the 4-0 win over Galatasaray, adding how Champions League nights at Anfield differ from an early kick-off at Brighton.
Slot was cautious even after Europe, downplaying expectations and pointing to a tight schedule and injuries. “We only get two days’ rest to go to Brighton, early kick-off. For me, that’s not good. Players get injured in this period because it is such a tight schedule,” he said, noting the challenge of comparing Brighton to Galatasaray.
Mohamed Salah was unavailable for the Brighton game and Hugo Ekitike left injured, and Slot’s comments about tiredness drew criticism: suggest to players they are entitled to feel tired and it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is some sense Liverpool have tried to manage workload all season, and that this has affected tactics. The pressing game that defined the Klopp era has diminished; a side once famed for intensity looks different now.
The running stats tell part of the story. Liverpool once ranked top of the Premier League for distance covered in Klopp’s first full season. This season they are in the bottom three for distance covered for the first time since such records began. It is a crude measure — teams can succeed without covering the most ground — but it illustrates a trend. Liverpool’s energy was once their hallmark; now they are a different side.
PPDA (passes allowed per defensive action), a commonly used metric to gauge pressing intensity, also shows change. Under Klopp Liverpool ranked top for PPDA in their last great season; under Slot they sit around eighth. Slot prefers a slower, more controlled possession game, but he has also lamented the team’s struggle to break down defences and the increased importance of set pieces—areas where the club has lost specialists from earlier eras.
The Galatasaray win was a reminder that Liverpool can still excel at a higher tempo, channelling the old Liverpool. Their inability or unwillingness to play that way consistently—physically, mentally and tactically—has been a recurring problem this season, leaving them outside the top four with seven to play.
Beto brilliant at getting big chances
At Everton’s 3-0 win over Chelsea, David Moyes could barely hide a smile when asked about comments by Brentford owner Matthew Benham praising Beto’s ability to create one-on-ones with goalkeepers. Benham noted that a player who earns multiple one-on-ones in a match should be valued highly: the act of getting into those positions is itself a skill.
Moyes knows it well. From his return to Everton in January 2025 to the end of that season, Beto missed more clear-cut chances than any other Premier League player, yet his goals were crucial in securing safety. Moyes recalls early games where Beto had multiple one-on-ones and thought: you don’t get those opportunities often. Beto gets them frequently — and that is a top-level trait.
Only four other Premier League players with at least 3,000 minutes this season average at least one big chance per 90: Erling Haaland, Alexander Isak, Gabriel Jesus and Mohamed Salah. That puts Beto in elite company for chance creation per minute, even if his finishing has been erratic at times.
Against Chelsea, Beto unsettled goalkeeper Robert Sanchez early and produced a classy first goal, then added a second to settle the contest and later assisted the third. His energy and persistence drew a standing ovation at Goodison. Moyes praises his endeavour and humility, even while acknowledging technical limitations: Beto’s pass completion rate is among the lower rates in the league, and he still has rough edges. But the list of players who get into scoring positions as often as Beto is short, and that alone explains why some analysts argue he deserves an upgrade in valuation.
Is Jimenez the penalty king now?
Raul Jimenez extended a perfect Premier League penalty record when he converted in Fulham’s 3-1 win at Burnley, with Martin Dubravka getting only a feather-like touch. Jimenez is now 14 from 14 from the spot in the Premier League. The next perfect runs are Yaya Toure at 11 from 11 and Dimitar Berbatov nine from nine. For the foreseeable future, this is Jimenez’s record to lose.
Jimenez employs a goalkeeper-dependent strategy: he stares down the keeper and has the technical skill to adjust his finish without looking at the ball. That composure and technique reduce the number of things that can go wrong. Whether he is the best ever is debatable — some would weigh pressure of the moment — but probabilistically his run is notable. Using Opta’s expected-goals model (around 79% success from the spot), converting 14 consecutive penalties is statistically rare and even makes Matthew Le Tissier’s famous 25 from 26 look slightly less probable by comparison on pure chance.
Last season Fulham initially preferred Andreas Pereira for spot-kicks, but Marco Silva switched to Jimenez. Finding a reliable taker matters, and Jimenez is one of the most reliable. At 35 in May, he has nine Premier League goals this season — only nine players have scored more — and after netting seven in his first Fulham season and 12 in his second, he has been a bargain since arriving from Wolves for about £5.5m. His contract is up at season’s end and there is reported interest elsewhere in the league; if he moves on, he is likely to leave with his perfect penalty record intact.