Five key statistics from Liverpool’s Merseyside Derby victory over Everton

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32%-68%- possession stats

The possession statistics point exactly towards the type of game Ronald Koeman and Everton had set out to play in an effort to stifle their ball-playing city rivals. They were more than happy to allow Liverpool time on the ball and to play their own way, but would press high up the pitch and close them down in an effort to stop them from playing, and for the first-half at least, they executed it well.

For the first 45 minutes they adhered to boss Ronald Koeman’s demand for a high-intensity pressing game, and restricted Liverpool to no efforts on target, but they seemed to run out of steam after the break, not helped by the loss of James McCarthy to injury.

His replacement Gareth Barry may be blessed with guile and years of top-flight experience, but sadly for him and Everton, he is an ageing force and he looked unable to cope with Liverpool’s intensity as they began to turn the screw late on. Although his substitute appearance did take him second behind Ryan Giggs in the list of most Premier League games played.

For Klopp’s side, the possession statistics show what we all expected: Liverpool would set themselves up to dominate possession and continue to play the ball and probe for an opening.

There are, however, signs of improvement on Everton’s part and they are right to feel somewhat unfortunate that they were unable to see out the game and were deprived of a hard-earned point right at the death. Their wait for a first Merseyside Derby triumph since 2010 goes on, and that win remains their only win in what is now 20 attempts.