This post is sort of the summer that's coming out later
transfer to another club (professional sports)
Previously in the analysis series, in order to discuss and analyze the summer more efficiently.
transfer to another club (professional sports)
The author will dissect the potential options on the Reds by way of advanced data.
Liverpool (England)
After the characteristics and elements of the front, center, and back line, a screening mechanism based on these elements will be established to further discuss the players that are closest to the team's needs in the current market for each of these three segments.
And this piece, as the beginning of this series, will start with an analysis of the team's main rotational players in the frontcourt (Firmino, Salah, Mane), and in order to expose the characteristics of the entire lineup as more accurately as possible, the author will be using the players' performance in all the progression data on the
Liverpool (England)
The average of the last four seasons (per90) is used as the standard for the analysis (if the franchise is less than four years old, the number of years since joining is used as the standard).
Liverpool (England)
as the whole
England Premier Soccer League
The team that is best at executing the high press means that to be the absolute mainstay in recent seasons, defensive ability is naturally something that has to be included in the analysis, along with the offensive ability required as a frontcourt player, which I will analyze at three main levels: defensive ability, ability to create chances for teammates (passes, breakthroughs/dishesions, ball protection), and ability to shoot (scoring).
*Statistics are averaged over the last four seasons (per90, per ninety minutes)
As you can see from the above data, Firmino and Mane are clearly above Salah on defense
In other words. That is to say, when discussing the possible candidates for the frontcourt, they don't necessarily have to be better than Firmino or Mane in terms of defensive ability (of course, it's best if they can be), but as long as they're not as good as Salah, they're basically out of the scope of the discussion. We need to know that although Salah's defensive ability is average, but it is good enough to have good scoring ability to make up for it (will be mentioned when discussing the shooting ability), even if there is a potential option that is not as good as Salah's defensive ability, but has better scoring ability than Salah's, I don't think that there is too much room for discussion.
Firstly, considering the offensive and defensive balance of the lineup and the execution of the high press system, it is almost unlikely that Klopp will let Salah maintain his original starting position while putting in a frontcourt player with worse defensive ability than Salah; secondly, the premise of discussing this type of potential option is that the team is ready to sell Salah and therefore needs to seek a similar type of replacement, but the possibility of this happening is not high or not high enough to warrant a discussion. The likelihood of this happening is not high, or not high enough for this author to think there is room for discussion.
Basic Passing Ability, Advanced Passing Ability, Breaking Ability, Ball Protection Ability, Producing Shots & Scoring Ability
rgDist (Progressive Distance): The distance of a successful pass forward, i.e. the distance of a return pass is not calculated.
*Prog (Progressive Passes): the number of successful passes made at least 10 yards forward, or completed inside the opponent's penalty area.
*Key passes: passes that lead to a teammate's shot on goal (i.e., a teammate can be credited with an assist after scoring)
