Yeah, this pretty much. Shot numbers are more meaningful--in any sized sample, really, but pariticularly in one this small--than the pure outcome-focused stat of goals, which is subject to a lot of randomness. One of the big insights of stats analysis is that focusing on process-based information (like how many shots you take and allow) tells you more about underlying quality than outcome-based ingormation (like goals).
The big problem for me with looking at the numbers in isolation is that they don't really tell the whole story. Away to Villa is a pretty good example, last season they tore us apart on the counter and at the start of this season they did the same to Arsenal. They have forwards who are a real threat in behind but are extremely poor at breaking down a low block.
In that game we made a conscious decision to defend deep, allow no space behind the back four and allow Villa to have the ball in areas where they could take pot shots but couldn't hurt us. As TSC was saying about Gerrard and Lucas sometimes you actually want the opposition to try their luck from distance because you are negating their strength whilst at the same time allowing yourself space to counter attack.
At the start of the season we had no Suarez and had to rely almost entirely on Sturridge for goals, that necessitated us to be tight at the back and to keep clean sheets if we wanted to win games. At the moment we are playing in a completely different way Suarez is scoring a ridiculous number of goals and we are basically playing we will score more than you. We are prepared to give teams chances to attack in numbers safe in the knowledge that we have the hottest striker on the planet.
The better sides are prepared to take up that offer of playing in effect basketball where you have an attack and we have an attack whereas the vast majority of sides simply don't have the quality to do that especially at Anfield. So you end up with a pretty small initial sample size that is then made up of different ways we have approached games and different ways the opposition have approached games.
In short you have to look a bit deeper than shots at goal or any single metric and look at what each team set out to achieve because conceding 5 shots on target in a game you have played end to end is very different to conceding 5 shots on target in a game you have looked to keep tight and nick 1-0.