This article is part of Football FanCast's In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets... 

Jurgen Klopp will have been disappointed on Wednesday as his Liverpool side could only draw 1-1 with Napoli.

The Reds dominated proceedings for the most part, amassing 71% possession during the 90 minutes, but they were only able to score once, through Dejan Lovren. Even that strike had come after Dries Mertens had opened the scoring.

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The former Borussia Dortmund manager made some changes to his side for this clash against the Serie A outfit, with three players being replaced in total. Mohamed Salah was back in the team on the right wing after being on the bench against Crystal Palace, whilst James Milner came into the midfield for Georginio Wijnaldum.

At right-back, Joe Gomez replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold.

It seemed a bizarre decision to play Gomez in that position. Not because he isn't comfortable playing there - he actually has more games in that role than at the heart of the back four for the Anfield outfit - but because he offers considerably less going forward than the usual starter. For example, the 12 assists Alexander-Arnold picked up in the Premier League last season is three times as many as the former Charlton man has in his whole career to date.

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Against the Italian team, an adventurous full-back would not have gone amiss. Yet Gomez offered very little going forward. He did manage a 95% pass accuracy, but considering three of the back four were able to hit over 90%, that stat loses its gloss. On top of that, he failed to make a single key pass, and couldn't land a single cross. He did complete his only dribble attempt, but it led to nothing afterwards.

Considering that Lorenzo Insigne faced Alexander-Arnold in the San Paolo Stadium in September, Klopp may have felt that he needed a more defensive-minded player in that position.

But the Italy international's huge €350,000 fine before the game indicated that he wouldn't even be included, which proved to be the case.

Even when Gomez did have some defending to do, he looked flustered, twice failing to clear the ball on his flank when it came into the box, allowing Napoli to have a second bite of the cherry on both occasions.

Fortunately for him, they failed to take advantage. He also won just three of the eight duels he contested, another example of his poor display.

In this match, the Reds were in desperate need of more creativity. So far this campaign, Alexander-Arnold's 1.5 key passes per match in Europe puts him at number four amongst his teammates, whilst no-one comes close to his 3.5 in the English top flight. Considering how much pressure the Reds put their opponents under during the match, they could have done with him on the pitch from the start rather than for just 12 minutes. Gomez, though, just wasn't able to offer the same kind of threat.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are interested in signing this lower-league speedster.