Brentford are the only team better than Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool in one interesting metric this season

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Brentford have built on a superb first season for manager Keith Andrews, in which they picked up four points from two matches against the Reds, and sit fourth in the Premier League table, unbeaten heading into the weekend.Well-known as being one of the most intense sides in the Premier League, the Bees will no doubt look to play on any tiredness in the Liverpool ranks after Andoni Iraola took his team to LASK in midweek. The game could ultimately be won and lost on which team runs and battles the hardest, but, according to the numbers at least, Liverpool should almost be a match for Brentford in terms of sprints during the match.With Szoboszlai, Isak and Gakpo still doubts, is this how you would line up against Brentford? 🤔 Gravenberch is suspended for this one Liverpool are sprinting harder than almost anyone Part of Liverpool’s problem under Arne Slot last season was that they simply looked like they could not compete physically.

READ MORE: Andoni Iraola has just thrown in a ‘curveball’ change ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Brentford Sitting top are Brentford, who are only just ahead with an average of 127.5 sprints per match. The Reds actually sit dead last of the 20 Premier League teams in terms of average distance covered per match, racking up 109.5km across every 90 minutes.

That is less than Slot’s team of last year so far, who were the second lowest in the Premier League, covering an average of 111.7km per game. So, though Liverpool may be able to match the Bees for their intense running, they will clearly need to do it for longer periods, and run harder and faster, to get anything from Saturday’s game.