Statistics correct as at 1st April.

There are many enemies to success in football, but is there any more powerful than complacency? Jürgen Klopp can preach a message of respect to players and fans alike as much as he wants, but after last season there will be few Kopites who expect anything other than a straightforward qualification for Liverpool and advancement into the Champions League last four.

And as much as the Reds were perhaps a touch fortunate to score five times in the first leg of their last 16 clash with Porto last season, across the two legs the underlying stats gave an expected goal result of 4.5 vs 1.1. Looking at the whole of the 180 minutes, the result was not so far stretched from performance after all.

I took a look at Porto for TTT ahead of the tie last season. While I concluded by saying “there’s definitely some impressive numbers here” and preached a degree of caution, this time I’m struggling to not board the complacency train myself.

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