Return of the Welsh Xavi

WHEN taking over a team and implementing a philosophy that focuses on you having possession of the ball then you need players who love the ball, players who want it all the time and who can take possession no matter how many players surround them.

You need players who can see the whole picture around them, who know that when they receive the ball they have one or more options to pass the ball too.

Not only that but the type of passing and speed of it helps set the tempo of the team, whether they are building slowly, trying to draw the opposition out or looking to pass quickly and more directly, to cut an opposition open with one or two well placed passes.

These sorts of players are not the headline makers, they are not the players that are first in your fantasy football teams; they can sometimes slip underneath the radar.

Joe Allen is that type of player. The young Welshman who learnt his trade under Roberto Martinez at Swansea arrived at Anfield for the fee of £15 million pounds shortly after Brendan Rodgers had made the same move.

Joe was bought to help Rodgers implement his preferred style of football. Rodgers went on record to say:

“I like to control games. I like to be responsible for our own destiny. If you are better than your opponent with the ball you have a 79 per cent chance of winning the game…for me it is quite logical. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are, if you don’t have the ball you can’t score.”

When put like that it really does make the beautiful game look quite straight forward.

Joe Allen had just finished his debut season in the Premier League for Swansea, at 22 he was a full Welsh international and had grown in stature during Swansea’s very impressive showing in the league. Not only did that season lead to Joe Allen being transferred to Liverpool, he was also selected for the Team GB football team and again acquitted himself very well, playing in all five games the Great Britain team competed in.

At the end of the 2011-12 season Allen had played 31 times for Swansea City and scored just 3 goals. From that it is clear to see that Allen is not much of a goal threat, but with age on his side it is something he can develop and improve on as he progresses.

In a Swansea team that wanted to have possession of the ball up to and beyond 79% of the time, Allen finished the 2011-12 season with a 91% pass completion rate and he attempted over 1500 passes. That is quite some feat. Not only that, but for a man of his size, only 5’6″ Allen made a surprisingly high number of tackles: 110 were made by Joe and that was only bested by two other players. Add into that the fact that 75% of those tackles were won and you can see why Brendan Rodgers wanted to bring him to Anfield.
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So, Joe arrived and as it happened we saw it all via Being: Liverpool, that great but cringe worthy fly on the wall documentary. One thing that was crystal clear was the high regard that Rodgers holds Joe Allen in. Brendan was grinning like a Cheshire cat and went on to call Joe the ‘Welsh Xavi’.

Now, whether or not you choose to take that literally is up to you. However, there really is no way you can compare the Joe Allen of now to the Xavi of now. In 12 years time? Who knows? Perhaps there will be players being called the English Joe Allen or the Spanish Joe Allen.

One thing I do know is that in terms of keeping possession and keeping the team ticking over then Allen is very similar to Xavi; he gets it, gives it, moves and gets it back. He does not try to force the pass and is not afraid to pass sideways or back. That is not to say he is afraid to pass forwards, he has a range of passes but predominately he keeps it short and sharp.

Allen took to life at Anfield like a duck to water; he was exceptional during the first 3 months of the season. He picked up Man of the Match awards for performances against West Brom and Manchester City and Yaya Toure commented after the 2-2 draw at Anfield that the game was the toughest he had played and singled Allen out as the reason for that.

People in football have very short memories, perform for the first 3 months of the season and you get forgotten, perform for the last 3 months and you are the double footballer of the year like Gareth Bale.

Of course, in an ideal world Joe Allen would have kept up those performances for the full season but his form and confidence did start to dip, we were made aware of a shoulder injury that had been hampering him for some time and don’t overlook the fact that Joe had recently become a father, having a new baby in the house can and usually will disrupt anyone.

Allen was still able to influence games though and he was instrumental in helping Liverpool turn around a 2-1 deficit at Anfield against Tottenham Hotspur, with Liverpool eventually running out 3-2 winners.

Shortly after that though Joe finally succumbed to the shoulder injury and had to undergo surgery, therefore ruling him out for the rest of the season.

Most people will say Allen’s first season with us was not a success, but in terms of stats it was. His pass completion rate was 90%, he only gave the ball away once every 9 minutes, that’s only 10 times per game effectively. The one area where he did drop significantly was his tackle rate, that went down to 65% and of course if you factor in a severe shoulder injury then it is no surprise he either was reluctant to tackle or could not complete the tackle successfully.

I watched Joe Allen in the recent pre-season game against Melbourne Victory and he looked sharp, fit and strong in the tackle. His distribution of the ball was again excellent. He successfully passed the ball forward, backwards and sideways, over both long and short distances. In truth he looked like the Joe Allen that first arrived at Anfield.

If I had to liken Joe Allen to anyone it would be more to the Xabi Alonso that first joined us but by the end of 2013-14 I think the Welsh Xavi will have a better ring to it.

Please comment and follow me on Twitter @JimFish286

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