Steven Gerrard-nomics
// December 17th, 2009 // Uncategorized
Here at NMOB! we are not afraid to ask the tough questions and to challenge the conventional wisdom. One of those questions that we ask ourselves a lot is whether Steven Gerrard is anywhere near as good as everyone says he is. Conventional wisdom has it that he is a superhero.
As I watched Liverpool’s big game against Arsenal last Sunday, I could not help thinking how bad he was: he really did not have much positive influence on the game, and he seemed to lose the ball a lot. But let’s look at the stats.
Above is an illustration of Stevie G’s passing against Arsenal. He attempted 30 passes, of which only 17 were successful — that’s 56%, which is not very good. For comparison, let’s look at the much-maligned Lucas Leiva, who completed 32 of 35 passes — a lot better. But you might argue that Lucas plays a more withdrawn position, and makes simpler passes. Okay, let’s compare Gerrard to Yossi Benayoun, who often subs for Gerrard when the great man is injured, and who also played an attacking midfielder/winger role. He attempted fewer passes (17) and but completed a much higher percentage of them (14, for 82%).
But that’s apples to oranges, right? Any two players on the same team will have different roles. Okay, well let’s compare Gerrard to more attacking, central players on other teams. Well, on the other side of the ball, Cesc Fabregas was 47 for 63, or – woah! Not only did he attempt more than double the passes, but he completed 74% of them.
Well, what about other stuff? Well, let’s see: Gerrard attempted 14 tackles, of which only five were successful — a truly terrible rate. (Lucas Leiva, made 7 successful tackles in 9 attempts.) Just an atrocious game for Gerrard.
But Arsenal are a great team, you might say. It’s unfair to analyze him solely in a game of such a high level. Fair enough. Let’s look at the week before against lowly Blackburn. 36 passes, 21 successful — yikes! Still not very good — even when Liverpool win. Well, maybe it was an ugly game. Let’s compare him to some Blackburn midfielders. Well, Brett Emerton made 28 passes, 23 of which were successful. And Vicent Grella was 24 for 25. This is not looking good for Gerrard. How about the Liverpool derby a three weeks ago? Much better for Stevie: 24 passes, 20 successful. As for Everton’s attacking midfielder, Maroune Fellaini: 32 of 35. Hmmn… so, who exactly is Steven Gerrard better than?
Well, at least we can all agree that Gerrard doesn’t dive. Or maybe we can disagree about that, too…
Posted by Lazar
11 Responses to “Steven Gerrard-nomics”
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I don’t think stats always paint a clear picture of how good a player is, but I agree that he has been poor the last few weeks and in fact for most of the season so far.
There is a number of reasons for this, the niggling injuries he keeps picking up, the lack of motivation now that liverpool are out of the champions league and the prem race, the fact that the whole liverpool team is performing badly of late.
I think a fully match fit Steven Gerrard is the best midfielder in the prem and probably the world.
I thought at first, glancing at the Chalkboard, these were the results of an unsuccessful NATO bombing raid against the Taliban.
I don’t doubt the probity of the Graunaid, but lest we forget it was formerly known as the Manchester Guardian.
So they could be having a bit of fun at the Scouser’s expense.
Here endeth my wisdom.
Ian, I must disagree. It’s true that Gerrard makes spectacular plays at times, but his full-game performance is never that good. He loses an incredible amount of balls. Flash over substance. A few months ago, the Guardian watched a Prem game with Xavi, and asked him what he thought. he said that he could see how the fans thought the end to end action was more fun, but he could not understand why the so-called star midfielders gave the ball away so easily. I must agree.
Steven Gerrard is English. Fact. English players don’t dive because they are not foreign and only foreign players dive. Fact. Steven Gerrard doesn’t dive. Fact.
QED
YNWA
Er Pupone :
YES, of course he dives !
But wouldn’t you with Tabloid discrimination ?
He’s far too nice to do that, so, with smoke and mirrors, we shall move onto other subjects; ie,
They would have you believe as fact :
The English have white teeth,
The English Trains run on time,
The English enjoy the best culinary delights.
The English, outside of Liverpool, don’t care about Steeviee Gerrard.
Unless “England Needs You”.
However, the English Press has moved on and is now much more concerned with the peccadillo’s of the players WAGS.
Back to soccer :
Will he be an asset in SA during 2010 ?
Maybee !
Will he dive ?
Probably.
Style and role do have a lot to do with it. As far as I can tell, the data points to a high risk player. I still want to know how central he is to the team (touches per player, some pattern data)and his risk-reward ratios, then compare, then pass judgement. If I were data-driven. But I don’t like maths. And once the announcers become your cheerleaders and apologists I feel dirty.
Players like Gerrard and Lampard are the reason England will never win the world cup. They contribute absolutely nothing but goals, and you can’t afford luxury players at that level.Ca
Actually i’ll have to show this to my dad because I can’t remember the last time I called him and he didn’t complain about ‘everybody wanking off that fat ball-wasting twat when he was shit all game.’
What people don’t understand is that it’s players like that who are the reason why Liverpool have never won the title. I saw the same when we went through some barren spells with Van Nistelrooy,.
Gerrard offers so much more than Xavi does. Xavi may be deliver much more incise passes through the middle, but that’s about all he does BETTER than Gerrard. And its much easier to look a good player when you have Dani Alves, Iniesta, Messi, Ibrahimovic and Thierry Henry. The only one Gerrard usually passes to of the same stature as the players mentioned is Fernando Torres.
Secondly, most of his passes are final balls as seen from the number of crosses put in from both wings (even though he’s considered a central player), and thus there are bound to be a lot more incomplete passes. Look at how many incomplete balls are in and around the box as well. Way to take one of his worst games of the season, and then generalize based on that.
He’s all over the pitch, hardly ever anonymous, and lifts his team time and again. There is a reason why Ferguson was after him, Mourinho apparently still is and Zidane rates him as the best player in the world.
If you really want to compare Gerrard to Xavi, do it when both were actually central mids, which Gerrard was last in 2004/05.
My bad for posting a similar comment twice. I posted it first, didn’t see it up on the website, and then posted a similar one again. Please delete the first one if you can. Thanks.