Jamie Carragher names factor that can help Liverpool win the Premier League
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has analysed the factor that can give his former side an advantage over rivals Manchester City and Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
After 27 games played of the 2023/24 season, there are just two points separating the top three sides, with Liverpool sitting in first place on 63 points.
The Reds secured three points on Saturday with a last-gasp Darwin Nunez winner away at Nottingham Forest, while City and Arsenal both kept up the pressure later in the gameweek with wins over Manchester United and Sheffield United respectively.
The trio look set to run each other close as we approach the business end of the campaign in what promises to be the most competitive title race in years.
Outlining the strengths of each side on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football Carragher highlighted that while Arsenal may have the strongest defence and City the best overall squad, Liverpool's use of substitutes to win games late on, as they did at Forest, could prove crucial.
Carragher, standing in front of a graphic showing the impact of the Reds' substitutes said: "Since the five-sub rule came in, no-one has utilised it better than Jurgen Klopp…
"Arsenal are the best defensively. We'll touch Manchester City next. They're probably the best team and got the best individuals but this is where Liverpool could win the league: from the bench.
"Jurgen Klopp always uses five subs...
"It shows the power from the bench, certainly in terms of scoring goals.
"38% of Liverpool's goals [have come] after 76 minutes and would you believe Liverpool have actually scored a bigger percentage of goals after the 76th minute than they have in the first half of games this season.
"Again that shows they’ve got players ready to come off the bench. They’ve got quality, and credit to Jurgen Klopp.”
Fellow pundit and Premier League great Thierry Henry then added: "It's the amount of points also that they got from those goals... they're actually winning. That's a lot of points, 15.
"He [Klopp] does trust what he has on his bench.
"If you look at some teams in the Premier League you have some players that will not leave the bench. Sometimes at City with Pep he doesn't even make any change in some games."
As highlighted by Sky, Liverpool have scored an impressive 24 goals after the 76th minute so far this season (15 for both Arsenal and City), earning them an extra 15 points (11 for City and nine for Arsenal), while there number of goals or assists by subs is 22 (compared to 18 for Arsenal and just 10 for City).