Data reveals three Liverpool stars who are about to explode into life after the international break
According to data, three Liverpool players will come alive after the international break. Things simply haven’t clicked as they should.
And rousingthekop.com analyzed Statstbomb data on Fbref to see which Liverpool players aren’t getting the luck they deserve right now.
According to their findings, three players stand out to us as rising stars who should soar after the international break.
Thiago Alcântara
Thiago appears to have the best chance of reaching new heights among all Liverpool players, according to the data. This, however, should not come as a surprise to many.
Injuries have hampered the Spaniard thus far, limiting him to only 2.2 90s in the Premier League this season. But he’s been quite impressive in those few minutes.
Thiago leads Liverpool in passes into the final third per 90 minutes by a wide margin. He also leads the Reds in progressive passes per 90, which is a particularly important stat.
A progressive pass is one that moves the team at least 10 yards further forward than any of the previous six passes. It’s an excellent predictor of who can make the difficult pass that gets things going.
Thiago averages 13 points per game, which is an absurdly high number.
In addition, he’s averaging 5.4 shot-creating actions per game. That is an action – such as a dribble, pass, or shot – that results in a chance for a teammate within two actions.
A pass to someone who then sets up a teammate, for example, or a dribble that leads to a shot. Alternatively, you could create a chance for yourself.
Only Trent Alexander-Arnold can outperform Thiago in that category. He also leads Liverpool in progressive carries and ranks fourth in final-third carries.
Thiago’s sample size is small, but his results are absurd. All of this he demonstrated last season, and if he gets more minutes, the Spaniard will dominate.
Naby Keita
Keita, unlike Thiago, does not stand out with his passing. Instead, he’s a dribbler, albeit a brilliant one.
Only Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, for example, have carried the ball into the penalty area more on average. That is a wonderful thing, and it demonstrates Keita’s true strength.
But that’s only half the reason we believe he’ll improve. The other half is that he isn’t dribbling very much.
Keita has attempted to take players on twice this season in the Premier League over the equivalent of four 90s. That’s not twice every 90 seconds; it’s twice in total. That’s an unusually low number for the Guinean, who averaged more than 2.5 per 90 last season and more than 2.8 the season before that.
His progressive carries are also the lowest of his career, as are his final-third carries. We’re not sure why, but Keita isn’t running with the ball as much as he used to.
Because Keita’s dribbling is world-class. As we’ve said before, he tried to sign a lot of players last season and had an 80% success rate – that’s insane. Salah and Mane’s average is less than 50%, and they are elite at it.
It’s not even an unusual percentage for Keita, who had a 76 percent success rate the previous year.
So, while Keita has done well this season, we believe he has a lot more to offer. When he finally leans into his strength, he’ll look fantastic.
Diogo Jota
Jota is already having a good season. He currently has four goals and an assist, with more on the way.
However, we want to concentrate on assists. Jota’s chances creation is improving dramatically, and his expected assists are now at 2.4. So he underperforms in that stat by 1.4, the most at Liverpool.
It’s an odd stat, though, because Jota’s underperformance isn’t his fault. Teammates are simply failing to capitalize on the opportunities he creates.
And he’s making a lot of them – 2.1 out of every 90. With 16 total in Premier League games, this is the third-highest total at Liverpool. The 24-year-old creates more per 90 minutes than Mohamed Salah, but Salah has seven assists to Jota’s one.
This is significantly more than Jota demonstrated last season. In fact, he’s already produced more than he did during his first campaign (12).
So, while his stat sheet only shows ‘one’ assist, he should have far more. Stats like this usually work themselves out, and we expect Jota to start getting a lot more assists throughout the season.
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Data reveals three Liverpool stars who are about to explode into life after the international break
