Carroll despite his flaws... was pretty good with his feet... Injuries aside.. I thought he was a monster of player at times.. Unplayable on his day.. Like Benteke.
Though like I said, The style Rodgers plays I struggle to see how it will work..
Benteke - BOOOOOO the puns
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Though like I said, The style Rodgers plays I struggle to see how it will work..
He might not be a disaster and hey he might even be very good. But he's just not the best option available for Liverpool with the money we have to spend, I guess that's my issue with Benteke.
Who is a better option that we can get?
Someone who better fits our style.
Benteke v Sturridge last 3 seasons from premier league website
Goals: 42 (inc 8 penalties from 190 shots 0.47 goals per match v 35 (inc 1 penalty) from 170 shots 0.64 goals per match
Assists: 8 v 11
Crosses:26 v 41
Headers: 13 v 5
Right Foot; 22 v 7
Left Foot: 7 v 22
Of those scored
Six yard box:10% v 28%
RHS penalty box: 5% v 11%
LHS penalty box: 5% v 9%
Centre of penalty box: 55% v 34%
Outside box:12% v 15%
This implies Benteke is very similar to Sturridge and not a one trick pony
Goals: 42 (inc 8 penalties from 190 shots 0.47 goals per match v 35 (inc 1 penalty) from 170 shots 0.64 goals per match
Assists: 8 v 11
Crosses:26 v 41
Headers: 13 v 5
Right Foot; 22 v 7
Left Foot: 7 v 22
Of those scored
Six yard box:10% v 28%
RHS penalty box: 5% v 11%
LHS penalty box: 5% v 9%
Centre of penalty box: 55% v 34%
Outside box:12% v 15%
This implies Benteke is very similar to Sturridge and not a one trick pony
Jerome Sinclair
What about his floors? Carpet, hardwood?
You're just looking at goals scored, not shot attempts though. Goals are the results of attempts (duh), but two guys with different playing styles and efficiency rates can yield the comparisons above, (probably incorrectly) suggesting similarity in styles.
Here's a comparison of shot attempts for the last 3 seasons, penalties factored out (source: whoscored).
STURRIDGE BENTEKE
Season Head Feet Head Feet
14/15 4 34 27 52
13/14 10 86 28 35
12/13 4 56 34 67
What does that say now? It says that headed attempts made up 6% to 10% of Sturridge's shots in each season but 34% to 44% of Benteke's attempts. Unfortunately, there aren't better breakdowns available to me so I don't know how many of those headers came from setpieces - a large number of those in that category would've inflated the composition in Benteke's case. However, if we assume that half of those headed attempts came from corners / free kicks, then, you'd still end up with anything from 20% to 28% of Benteke's attempts coming from crosses. Still not that similar.
What's also dissimilar, is the composition of attempts inside vs outside the boxes (both 6 and 18-yards). Shot attempts inside the box, minus penalties, assuming all headers inside box:
STURRIDGE BENTEKE BALOTELLI
Season INBOX OUTBOX INBOX OUTBOX INBOX OUTBOX
14/15 25 14 68 11 25 31
13/14 63 35 51 12 52 95
12/13 40 20 78 23 20 51
p.s. You'll find that the total number of shots don't always exactly tally with the first table - that's because there's this category of shots for attempts going in from body parts called "Others" which I ignore. Miniscule numbers anyway, so no harm done dropping them.
I threw in Balotelli there for kicks, just to show why he was such a bad fit for us. I don't know of any other striker who takes so much more outside box shots than inside box ones. He's had to change his game with us, as you can see from his numbers in 14/15 versus the other two seasons.
Anyway, back on Benteke vs Sturridge, you can see that at least Benteke lives inside the box, which is a good thing for us. The question now is, again, can he deal with a game that's built on fewer aerial crosses, or can we (or do we want to) build a game that's better at putting in aerial crosses.
When it comes to converting inside the box with feet, there's no compare - Sturridge's efficiency, last season aside, is much better.
STURRIDGE BENTEKE
Season Efficiency Efficiency
14/15 14.3% 14.6%
13/14 24.5% 13.0%
12/13 22.2% 20.5%
The thing is though, that efficiency rates are dependent on not just the quality of the player, but also the quality of the chances provided. If you believe Benteke will get more and much better opportunities to his feet after joining us, then you might expect to see those conversion rates go up. That's what happened to Sturridge by the way - prior to joining us, he was shooting at the same rates as Benteke was in the last 2 seasons.
Stat bomb!
Hardly completely inaccurate, maybe somewhat.
To say we don't cross the ball is completely fallacious. We crossed it less than any other team in the PL but we still cross the ball (I've seen the figures but can't remember them, @Kingbinny ? ) probably half that of the team crossing the most, so still a fair bit,
Hahaha !
[/article]
[article]Opta's Premier League best: Aerial duels
1. Christian Benteke (188)
2. Graziano Pelle (176)
3. Jason Shackell (170) [/article]
Name a better one ? Of course everyone would prefer Lacazette however it is more than likely that with his record he wouldn't / won't come here. We may even have made enquiries and been told that directly - we simply don't know.
Other 'top' scorers in other leagues have already moved on (DePay, Vietto, Martinez) or are likely beyond our reach (Higuan, Cavani etc.). Otherwise there's Benzema - with possibly a similar scenario to Lacazette, and then who ? Take a chance on some virtual unknown or from a minor league ? It's well-known that there is simply a dearth of good strikers at the moment, everyone seems to be bemoaning this fact.
Benteke has a proven record and is far less of a gamble, not my first choice but I certainly won't be bemoaning it if it happens. We are not going to find a Suarez or Coutinho with every roll of the dice and in the meantime the Top 4 are moving further and further away.....
People seem to presume we won't change our style slightly to accommodate Benteke which seems slightly nieve. We didn't with Balotelli because Rodgers never wanted him.
Actually we did, but Balotelli was just too shite to do anything with it. After a dismal first 2-3 months Rodgers had enough, dropped Balotelli and reverted to the previous seasons' style.
At the very least Balotelli can bully the life out of defenders and unsettle them. I like that.
Lacazette... Money Talks.
Show him the money... Simple really...
Make a Statement.. Benteke is a risk as much as any other player..
Our Style in how we play may need to change to accomodate him.. He is hardly a prolific goalscorer either..
He played him for the first dozen games or so.. It Became apparent he did not suit our style of play..
He didn't even change it for Lambert... He preferred the seasons before style of play...
Why would he change it for Lambert. He was brought in as an impact 4th choice option. It was unfortunate that he became our best option for a while, I've never seen a player so out of his depth
True he did look out of his depth.. One signing I never really understood...
He was always going to be an impact player..
That being said we never seemed to really played to his strengths when he did play
I don't think we played to anyone's strengths last season.
Unless we include the opposing team.
Unless we include the opposing team.
No, he's got another flight of stairs to go up.
Although if he took the lift we might win the league
It's now got to the point where I wish we'd just sign Benteke because reading stuff about him is boring my tits off. I am not sure how he'll fit in ahead of players like Coutinho, Firmino et al, players who need the strikers to move and press etc, but maybe he'll demonstrate attributes he hasn't had a chance to at Aston Villa. Don't know. He's still young, and if he applies himself he could be very good because he's clearly a talented striker. Whether he is a good fit for us is my concern though.
At the end of the day, if we sign Benteke, so be it, I'll support him - it's not my neck on the line.
It's is Rodgers neck on the line though - no excuses - if Benteke, Firmino, Clyne & Milner don't fire us into the top 4 - he's done.
It's is Rodgers neck on the line though - no excuses - if Benteke, Firmino, Clyne & Milner don't fire us into the top 4 - he's done.
Agreed. Would only add that I suspect he'll have to have got us there by the New Year. The previous pattern, whereby that's more or less the time when Rodgers' sides have started to perform properly, may well not be enough for FSG this coming season.
Agree, seems like there's no argument he's getting a fair crack as far as spend and decision making is concerned. The only thing is the expectation with the improvement the top 4 are making. Certainly should be outplaying most of the league.
