Why not just stamp 'useless' on his forehead and send him packing. Oh, that's right, we paid £10.5m for him. That's not a typo, £10.5m! Borini is 23 so the 'he's still young' argument is invalid, his 'potential' will need to come to fruition very soon, like next season for whomever he plays for, or he'll fall under the David Bentley category. If we need a fourth striker, I'd rather see the younger Luis Alberto or Samed Yeşil get a chance. Unfortunately, we'll be lucky to get half of what was invested in Fabio.
A stat comparison with Rickie Lambert is even more daunting:
| Borini | Lambert | |
| Apps (sub) | 25 (7) | 31 (6) |
| goals | 7 | 13 |
| assists | 2 | 10 |
| chances created | 26 | 53 |
| cc per | 0.8 | 1.4 |
| pass % | 76.6 | 69.7 |
| key passes | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| back pass % | 52.9 | 41.4 |
| shots pg | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| shot % | 14 | 16 |
| dispossessed pg | 1.5 | 1.6 |
| turnover pg | 1.3 | 1.4 |
The significant stats here are assists, chances created, and key passes. Lambert will most likely see the pitch with either Sturridge or Suarez as the front man, so he'll be most likely asked to be more of a set-up man than a finisher/poacher. Borini's stats indicate that he lacks the ability to be a consistent second striker and poaching is seemingly the only skill he possesses.
One stat that I think should be more significant though rarely draws any attention is 'back pass %'. Not to insult anyone's intelligence, but these are passes that go towards one goal and not towards the opposition's. 52.9% is very high and it completely invalidates Borini's superior pass % since it's much easier to pass back than to progress forward. This probably why Lambert has five times the assists and twice as many chances created. I'd rather have a player who tries to create goal chances and fails, then one that just gives up and passes the ball back to do it all over again. It's not as if Lambert was turning the ball over significantly than Borini.
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