Ahead of Thursday’s draw for the 2022-23 Champions League group stage, UEFA has released its annual technical report into last season’s competition.
The report breaks down the entire 2021-22 tournament in great detail, examining the technical and tactical aspects of every game from the first round through to the final, which saw Real Madrid emerge victorious with a 1-0 verdict over Liverpool at the Stade de France, Paris.
As usual the report was compiled using input from UEFA’s select technical observer group — a group that included Frank de Boer, Gareth Southgate, Robbie Keane and Claude Makelele among many notable names. For the first time at least one member of the technical observer group was in attendance at every single Champions league game — that’s 125 games in total from matchday 1 onwards.
The entire UEFA document is 106 pages long and densely packed with information. We understand if the mere thought of trawling through such a weighty tome is daunting. Thankfully we’ve pressed ahead and picked through the dossier on your behalf, cherry-picking the most interesting facts, figures and fundamentals to give you the main takeaways.
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Liverpool were victims of their own success
While it was obvious to all that Liverpool were starting to flag by the time they reached the Champions League final, the UEFA technical observer group made a point of singling out the Reds’ heavy workload as a key factor in their struggle to compete in Paris.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were chasing an unprecedented Quadruple and while their willingness to fight on four fronts brought them tantalisingly close to making history, in their breakdown of the final itself the panel were left wondering whether such and long and arduous campaign “finally told in Liverpool’s 63rd match” of the season.
Belgium coach Roberto Martinez noted in the report that he “didn’t see their normal energy and they didn’t have the space for the front three,” while former AC Milan and Real MAdrid boss Fabio Capello said: “I saw Liverpool not as fast. The ball was moved slowly.”
The individual performance of Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois might have had an influence too with the Belgian directly responsible for thwarting Liverpool on nine occasions as the Premier League side mustered 24 shots (nine on target) in comparison to Los Blancos’ meagre four (one on target).
Former Liverpool goalkeeper David James said: “If [Courtois] doesn’t make two incredible saves Liverpool win the game and we have a completely different discussion here,”
Of course, the Reds’ did end 2021-22 with two domestic cups to their name, though it’s perhaps a little galling to realise they might have come at the expense of a much more illustrious prize.
