There is just one stat that really matters - the scoreline. But after every Barclays Premier League match we'll take an in-depth look at Opta's data on the Reds, starting with our defeat at West Brom. Of the starters, debutant Joe Allen was our most accurate passer with 95.6 per cent of his attempts reaching their man. Lucas Leiva was second with 92.6, while Martin Skrtel and Glen Johnson also recorded 90 per cent plus. Daniel Agger was our most ambitious passer, hitting it long on 16.7 per cent of occasions. Joe Allen was second on this score with 16.2. Overall Liverpool's pass accuracy was 88.9 per cent - substantially higher than last season's average of 80.9. West Brom completed 80.8 per cent of their passes on the day. The Reds executed 523 passes in total. Their average in 2011-12 was 455. West Brom hit long balls on 14.3 per cent of occasions. Liverpool's percentage here was 11.3. Liverpool had 16 shots, West Brom had 18. The hosts also had more corners: seven to three. Brendan Rodgers' side enjoyed 59.5 per cent of possession but West Brom came out on top in duels, edging it by winning 55.8 per cent. Skrtel also had the most touches for Liverpool: 80. Steven Gerrard won 100 per cent of his duels. Among the defenders, Martin Kelly won the highest percentage of duels: 55.6. Luis Suarez had most shots for the visiting team with eight. Two were on target.
Skrtel had the most touches? Kelly won only just over half his 'duels' and that was the best for a defender? No bloody wonder we didn't win the game...
interesting thanks quite a few things wrong there then... skertl passing it too much, agger playing long balls so the midfielders were not demanding the ball off these guys... or in other words having two guys while gerrard swans about whereever is rather easy to close odwn. Allen and lucas passing rates are great as it wasn't all backwards from them... rather it was gerrard, downing and borini who were hoofing it backwards in a kuytlike manner when it came to them. Roll on hearts then!
When will you lot ever learn? These so called statistics are just plain rubbish. They tell you absolutely nothing. What ultimately matters is how the team gelled and how many goals they managed to both score and concede.
of course they don't tell us anying fordeck but add them to what you see on the day and it certainly does highlgiht a couple of things. My favorite optastas is the headless chicken stat. thats the one that shows how many metre each player ran durign the game... I'd bet gerrard ran less in 90 than lucas did in 70... just a guess...
