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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The Welsh wally , not xavi
he needs to start playing 30 yards further up the pitch before he really starts to influence games
I suport this article, Allen needs my prayers to get to his destiny’s top. Lets go Allen
The Welsh Ha-ha-ha-vi.
To sell Spiring for 3m.? and to buy this ha-ha-ha-vi for 15m.? LOL…
It’s nothing to laugh about. Even spearing is better than Allen
absolute nonsense.backwards and sideways all the time.wat influence if u r always passing the ball to the cb’s?the welsh poulsen more like.
xavi-like ? maybe, but gerrard, allen , lucas ( against thailand for eg. )just does not work, imo. Maybe its time to drop gerrard to get the best out of allen. 🙂
are u on drugs
joe allan is brenden rodgers sword ! i hope BR does not fall on his sword.. as joe allan is a championship player all day long.. why is he in our side.. its a joke.. sell him a. s. a. p. lets move on..
Your an idiot! Championship player my ass……. If that was true then why did his stats for Swansea in there first prem season blitz any of our midfielders then hey……. Answer me that? You obviously didn’t read the article above, you just chose to slate the lad before he gets a proper chance. If he has a blinder this season, you will be kissing his ass at the end of it. People like you were dissing Sturridge as not good enough and you are all eating your words now! Give Allen a break and have some faith.
I don’t think Allen is good enough for a championship side..
I’m sure joe is a great bloke but watching him pass sideways all the time did my head in. All momentum was lost. No coincidence that we played better without him towards the end of last season
Joe Allen will never be half the player Xavi is!!! I watched the Melbourne victory game and Joe Allen made a lot of passes, 90%??? Yeah 89% passing backwards… Xavi does pass backwards but his vision to pick a perfect pass is brilliant, something in my opinion Joe Allen will never achieve!! U want class in midfield get Xabi Alonso back even at 30years old he can control games n will for atleast another 3 seasons! Look at Scott parker when he went to spurs?? Even older than Alonso is now but he had 2 great seasons which helped spurs to get to the Champions league… Sell Suarez that worthless backstabber to Madrid for 40mil and Alonso. Then buy Yilmaz, Erriksen and Alderweild/iLLoRi . Maybe Fsg could get us Luis Murial from their unused pockets!!! Net spent of 3miilion I think they owe us a marquee singing aside from the Suarez money!!! And honestly if we do get the players I mentioned, Forget Top 4….. We will be fighting for the title!!! And pls get rid of Spearing! Damn that guy irritates me lol
Another target goin elsewhere,ilori to spurs
Its all lies with the owners,ian ayre and Brenda,my blood is boiling,where is the 2 big signings,we can’t attract anybody to our circus,the longer these cowboys are in charge the further we are gonna go down
The best thing to happen to LFC last season was Allen getting injured. We improved so much without that sideways passing wimp.
Sad thing is he is Rodgers favourite pet and wont be dropped
The guy doesnt even get stuck in . Allen doesnt deserv to ever wear the Liverpool shirt
Only a gibbering idiot could compare Allen to Xavi
He did…Rodgers
Few seasons ago, the flop was about to be offloaded for 3mp bt dis season, if u dnt have 80mp u cant get his services. GARETH BALE. Look on brothers and enjoy the game of football!
Allen is not good enough for Liverpool. It’s a joke that a player of his low quality could ever wear the red shirt
He lacks vision , creativity and he does not goes in for the hard tackle. Didn’t see him much n tackling the opposition when they have the ball in our half. Since he had recovered from his shoulder injury lets hope he can up his game plan in the new season. Would like to see him more as a warrior and a playmaker and of course scoring more goals. The only thin positive thing I can say is that his passing an distribution of the ball was good and much better than Downing and Henderson . Sadly he started to fade away perhaps due to his shoulder injury.
Excellent piece on an excellent footballer! People will always want our centre midfielders to be hard tacklers and box to box men. In truth, the classiest midfielders ie Xavi, Inesta, Pirlo, Alonso and even Carrick go about keeping the team ticking over with short passing and possession work. Not strong tackling and running round like a headless chicken. Allen is still young, once he’s settled and works on his shooting and final 3rd play, I expect him to be an excellent player who will be lauded like all other fantastic ball playing midfielders are.
alonso is a strong tackler like wise pirlo (u sound like u started watching him just recently) the four players u mentioned have something in common allen doesnt have. they dont enjoy passing the ball side ways nd backwards. they normally start or keep pushing the attack.
Excellent footballer ? No . One of the worst ever in a Liverpool shirt
Ok lets be honest here – allen is a joke . Not even a premier league player let alone LFC. When Rodgers goes he can take that weak useless allen with him
I know Carroll cost more , but allen is a bigger waste of money as he contributes nothing. Worst buy in Liverpools history without doubt
interesting how opinions are always extreme, either pro or con. allen must have potential given the start he made but still has to prove himself at this level over a (hopefully injury free) full season.
We all know that Allen is Buck Rodgers favourite..
Did Rodgers write this article? Or, sorry it was Joe Allen himself. Keep your propaganda to yourself.
Joe Allen is a swansea player not a red. A convenient shoulder injury explains why he was rubbish. The real question to be asked is who was the worst buy? Joe Allen or Fabio Borini. I can’t believe how FGS can spin the media and overlook the failings of last season. Our competition next season are Aston Villa and Everton.
Also Cant wait to see how these new Spanish boys do. They have bargain basement written all over them. Rodgers/FGS out!
Yes . And Rodgers is a Swansea manager NOT EVER a Liverpool one