Liverpool have scored just nine Premier League goals in seven matches as they prepare to host Brighton
On 25 October 2026 Liverpool had scored just nine Premier League goals in seven matches this season as they prepared to host Brighton at Anfield.
Brighton (23) and Manchester City (20) have scored more than double Liverpool's Premier League tally this season, while across three Champions League games and a Carabao Cup tie Liverpool have scored 15 goals. Liverpool are still awaiting their first home Premier League win under Andoni Iraola and have registered 10 different goalscorers so far this campaign.
Iraola addressed the contrast between the club's domestic and European form after Liverpool scored four against Villarreal at Anfield, saying: "I don't really know the reason. It's true that the LASK game is different but against Villarreal and Atletico Madrid, I think we've been offensively, especially, really good." He added: "In the Premier League, we are not scoring at this level and also we are probably defending better. They are different kind of games and different kind of opposition, I think more than [the difference being] the competitions, it is who you have played against."
Statistically Liverpool average 3.75 goals per game outside the Premier League but just 1.29 goals per game in it, and they have conceded first in four of their seven league games. That league run has produced three clean sheets and eight goals conceded, compared with eight conceded in four Champions League and Carabao Cup matches.
Opposition tactics have been a recurring theme: Liverpool have faced a low block in 28% of their games — more than any other Premier League side — while only 15% of their games have involved facing a high block, the fewest in the division. On the club's tactical preferences Iraola said in July: "I prefer to face low blocks in terms of the way we will be in control of the games - probably we will concede less chances and spend a lot of time in the opposition half," former Bournemouth manager Iraola said in July.
A current analyst for a Champions League team offered a view on the competition difference: "You have more moments of technical brilliance in European football so the players they [Liverpool] have recruited don't have to adapt to that level but are probably around the elite of that level. That results in more chances and more goals but the Premier League is completely different. Iraola's style benefits from having the space to attack and we saw that at Bournemouth," the analyst says.
One of the reasons for appointing Iraola was to produce a front-foot style, and Liverpool's recruitment has included Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Bradley Barcola, Cody Gakpo, Victor Munoz and Rio Ngumoha. The xG table suggests Liverpool should have scored 10.9 goals in the league; before the weekend eight teams, including newly promoted Ipswich and Manchester United, had scored more than the Reds.
Liverpool's next Premier League tests come against Brighton and then Arsenal, with Arsenal having scored 11 Premier League goals this season and winning the 2025-26 title with an average of 1.87 goals per game; Iraola will be hoping his attack can click and deliver a statement performance.
