With Liverpool owner John W Henry’s obsession with saber-metrics in baseball and his related appointment of Damien Comolli as Director of Football Strategy (an interesting development which I will talk about in another article), I thought it might be good to look at some realistic transfer targets using statistics. Although it will certainly not be anything like the system that perhaps the Reds may use in their own statistical analysis, which would probably use both Pro Zone and Opta Index, I have used some basic stats, courtesy of imscouting, to show player efficiency in regards to goals and assists per minute; stats that could be useful when assessing striker targets. Although the results may be skewed slightly because of the variable quality of each European league, three players who all play in Portugal looked very impressive looking at their efficiency statistics.
Oscar Cardozo – On last season’s form for Benfica, the Paraguayan looks highly likely to be one player who can make the big leap into a top European league. In 2412 minutes for the Portuguese side last season, he averaged a goal or an assist every 77.81 minutes, scoring 26 and assisting 5 other goals. A target man style striker which Liverpool are looking for, he is very strong and has excellent aerial ability. On top of this he is comfortable with the ball at feet and is an expert free kick taker. He also has a very powerful long range shot which gives the 6ft 3in 27 year old a great variety in his game. The only concern would be his record at international level, which is not impressive to say the least, with only three goals in 35 appearances for Paraguay.
Radamel Falcao – The Colombian had an extremely impressive first season at Porto. In 2349 minutes on the pitch last campaign, he averaged a goal or an assist every 77.81 minutes, scoring 26 goals and 5 assists for Porto last season. At 5ft 8, Falcao is not the tallest of strikers but his strong frame means he is rarely pushed off the ball. Again it is up to interpretation whether his goal record would be as consistent in a bigger European league but the Colombian is only 24, and has a good scope for progression in the next few years, which might interest a club looking for young talent such as Liverpool. The only problem would be the fact that Porto only own 60% of Falcao’s playing rights, complicating any transfer.
Hulk – The funny nicknamed Brazlian is a controversial figure but his start to this season has been absolutely phenomenal. Averaging a goal per game during his time in Japan, where he got his nickname, he couldn’t translate that record for Porto after joining in 2008 initially. This campaign however has been a different story and in just 680 minutes of action, he is averaging a goal or an assist every 61.82 minutes, scoring 8 and assisting three other goals. He is skilful and has a strong left foot but he lacks aerial ability due to his height. A controversial incident however occurred in December last year involving an altercation in the tunnel with Benfica stewards which led to a long ban by the Portuguese FA. At 24, the Brazilian is showing this season what he is capable of, and he may develop in the coming years.
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STELLA WDM RESULTS
Here is a sabermetric stat – Roy is mediocre and Rafa is a genius who deserves our loyalty and support.
Facebook group ‘we want Rafa back at Liverpool FC’
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Are you having a laugh “we want Rafa back”. 19 defeats last season and look at Inter the other night against Spurs. He’ll soon have them mediocre. Not backing hodgson but i would never want Rafa back.
Champions League winners, European Super Cup winners, FA Cup winners, Community Shield winners, Champions League finalists, highest ever Premier League points. Won 56.13% of league matches (2nd highest for any post-war Liverpool manager), won 55.84% of european matches (3rd highest in Liverpool history). http://tomkinstimes.com/2010/06/some-rafa-benitez-facts-and-record/
LETS SET A FACE BOOK SITE,WE WANT ROY OUT SOON BUT WE DONT WANT RAFA BACK
If all these “stats” are the way forward then can someone explain in easy terms to me how the “stats” of Hodgson show him to be the finest in the world for Liverpool?
There’s some rubbish being bandied about somewhere I think?
John W henry can’t have much faith in his “stats” to have RH in post….
Everyone has to stop bashing Hodgson , granted we have had an awful start to the season but I think things are starting to look up and wait until at least the end of December to judge him.Personally I do think we need a striker{Oscar Cardozo look’s the best fit out of these for Liverpool as I think we need a good target man and I would like to also see us consider Mario Gomez or Fernando Llorente and maybe take a gamble on young Andy Carrol if we don’t have much money as he is only 21 and has really impressed me any time I have seen him} in January and along with a striker we badly need an out and out winger who has pace,good delivery and can beat defenders and with Ashley Young refusing to sign a new contract at Villa I think he would be perfect and would add a lot to our squad we could offer Babel in a player plus cash deal the next important slot to fill is a good holding midfielder as although I like our 2 midfielders contrary to some so called fans I dont think Lucas and Meireles are completley defensive minded and Poulsen is a bit slow and in my opinion not up to the task of replacing Mascherano which is why we need to snap up Lassana Diarra before someone else does, Real will let him leave for £9m apparently and just because Real don’t want him doesn’t mean he isn’t top class{Sneijder,Robben and Van der Vaart were all deemed surplus to requirements at the Bernabau and the likes of Kaka and Benzema could be following in there footsteps} 3 positions we need to fill in January 1.Striker 2.Winger and 3. Holding midfielder then in the summer we can look to getting a left back a centre half and maybe another winger/attacking creative midfielder but first things first and I heard Roy saying he may look to bring in 5 or 6 players in January which I really hope isn’t the case as I would much prefer to see 1 or 2 top quality players rather than 5 or 6 mediocre ones but up until January let’s just hold tight get behind Roy and the team and see where we go which will be up the league
JJ are u kidding me.roy is nuts and must go.the more we keep him the further the damage he does to our team.even if we win its not becoz of him,its becoz the players just pick themselves up in big games like at man u,players simply played well.check the next game,back to mediocre style.against chelsea u will see,the players will be self motivated becoz of the magnitude of the game and if we win its not becoz of roy who cant motivate anybody.check last nite,its not roy who won us the game.its becoz stev g once again took matters into his own hands.roy is unliverpool material.he cant field the players,cant talk to the press corectly,cant defend his players from feggie atacks,encourages feggie to buy tores.guess he is a man u fan coaching liverpool since he is friends with feggie.
cascarino was right. it’s becoming boring watching us play. nesv, please help us! roys team selection is wrong. and roy is now even talking about playing one of our best prospects (pachecho) out of position! same old story!
I wonder why no one is talking about Hugo Rodallega. He is way way better than cole and pavluchenko and under the right manager he will flourish.
lads i dont know why use are backing rafa and slatting hodgson….benitez’s buys were simply shocking and looking through that squad i see nothing but players not worthy of the liverpool shirt….some questionble buys have to be babel,lucas,skrtel,ngog,aquilani,insua,degen,voronin,degen and need i even continue!!!…hodgson was giving a near impossible job of building a team with no money at the start of the season least we can do is give him a chance….yes benitez won us trophies but 2 in 6 years is hardly a glorious statistic is it!
GET CARDOZO PLEASE! he was awesome against us and looks like the type of player that could adapt to the premiership
why do people complain about people being played out of postion, the coach trains with them every day and gues what he may just know a little more than you lot, give the guy some credit for christs sake, pacheco isnt good enough (yet) to be put with the responsibilty of a playmaker role behind the front man
there must be aspects to their game that shows roy that they are not quite good enough in that position at that certain moment in time againt a specific opposition, you lot should stick to your football management games on your pc lol i actually coach a team and can see why he plays these guys in those positions.
roy is an intelligent man and WILL get us results and if we play ugly at the minute so be it, the players know how to play football but they arent! roy isnt the one constantly playing it back to the keeper and hoofing it up the pitch!
IM FIRIOUS that the only time the fans started making any noise last night was when we were 3-1 up, half of you fans are useless!!!