Originally Posted by alancracker:
“Yeah but what about so called 'assists' that came to the player who scored by a fluke and the pass did not ;pick out the player' at all. I see many goals resulting from crosses in the general direction of the box and then the striker makes something of it and that = an assist to the midfielder. On the contrary there are fantastic passes which were incredibly creative and laid a great chance on a plate for the striker but did not result in a goal cos the striker messed it up. Or when someone has a 95% pass accuracy - is that cos he always plays the simple ball. Or when someone runs further than anyone else in a match but is doing it to little purpose, all we learn is that he runs a lot - so what?. Or defenders who are out of position and it results in a goal against but it is not counted in the stats cos being out of position is not very measurable. Then there's keepers who make howlers but defenders cover for them and 'get them out of jail' so it does not result in a goal against and so the keeper's stats stay good.
Too many people have an inflated idea of their importance and cos of them fail to watch what players actually do properly. Use them as a guide yeah but do not over rely on them, I think that watching the player play live is far more important than looking at their stats on a page, always has been, always will be.
I have seen stats on this very page in the last few weeks saying James Milner is one of the best 5 players at the Euros and that Daniel Sturridge is a better player than any of Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish, Luis Suarez or Robbie Fowler. That's the kind of nonsense looking at stats in a vacuum makes you come out with.
And btw I like both James Milner and Daniel Sturridge but to say the above just borders on the daft for me.”
That Milner UEFA link was postd in jest by me as a dig at those who think he adds nothing. Irrespective of how misrepresentative the stats were that UEFA used, the consistent quality of the company he was in suggested he's doing something right which was my point at the time.
I agree on pass completion accuracy - central defenders excel in that one normally!
As for the argument re assists - of course some are fortunate or rely on the quality of the goal scorers but over a season they're a pretty accurate measure of a player's creativity given most players will get the odd lucky assist. So when low you could look to the team's Goals For column for mitigatio but wnen high I'd say it's invariably representative. An assists % of total team goals would be even more accurate but I think the media are keeping things simple.
As I said, can't solely rely on stats and some are more indicative than others. I suspect if Klopp knows a player covers a lot of miles in a game he'd use that as however you paint stats if a player doesn't cover much ground he'll be less likely to succeed in a Klopp team, especially in certain positions.
Coutinho: can go if he wants to but we've got to push for £35m up surely. He's wonderful at times but still inconsistent.
Kolo: Shame if true as he has a brilliant attitude and has never let us down - must be a wage thing as I'm sure he'd be damn useful to keep around for another year given some of his excellent performances this season.
