The transfer rubbish bin: Vidal, Pogba, the Pope & Santa Claus

The latest slop to come from the transfer pig trough is Liverpool's interest in Juventus midfielders Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba.  The chance of such rumours coming to fruition are like Kate Upton having my love child.

Arturo Vidal is a man-beast.  Unfortunately, Liverpool have no interest nor room for the 27-year-old Chilean International. With Can, Henderson, Gerrard, & Lucas, minutes would be sparse, and his lack of 'specialization' would only hurt his chances of pitch time.

Vidal is an all-round good midfielder, but does nothing great.  Here are his stats from last season:

npgp90	gcp90	ccp90	ap90	ccv
0.33	0.59	1.73	0.18	10.6
pass%	bp%	sacc%	shot%	TTI90
83.7	40.9	33.3	19.3	13.2
gsp90	gap90	gop90	tgop	gopd90
2.21	0.74	1.47	1.5	-0.03
intp90	drbp90	tp90	tack%	adw%
1.44	1.99	4.8	43.2	53.8

If he hadn't scored 11 goals and had 5 assists, he'd be a poor man's Lucas.  If he didn't post such defensive numbers, he'd be a slightly passing inferior Jordan Henderson.  Either way, he pales in comparison to a 33-year-old Gerrard.

Pogba falls under the same problem, he's also a box-to-box whom would probably be great at being either an attacking or defensive midfielder if he just concentrated his efforts towards being one or the other.  He does seem to be better on the ball than Vidal though.

npgp90	gcp90	ccp90	ap90	ccv
0.21	0.41	1.41	0.21	14.6
pass%	bp%	sacc%	shot%	TTI90
83.8	39.7	39.7	9.6	11.3
gsp90	gap90	gop90	tgop	gopd90
2.14	0.59	1.55	1.5	0.05
intp90	clrp90	tp90	tack%	adw%
1.06	1.14	2.46	40.6	58.4

They are very similar players which is probably why Juventus are shopping both, but will probably only sell one.  Unfortunately, there is no reason to buy either, Henderson is just as good, Gerrard is better, Lucas is a far superior holding midfielder, and Can has all the assets to compete for minutes.

The Pope is great at crosses and saves, but do we really need a winger/keeper?

There is only one reason Gerrard should ever play for England again

To knock Beckham off his perch and become the top capped outfield player in Three Lions history. That's it, two more matches and he should hang up those boots.  Gerrard is 34 and we need him to put his England days behind him and  focus on LFC.

After the World Cup embarassment, he should probably go ahead and retire, but with my disdain for 'pretty foot', I don't mind if he suits up a couple more matches.  I don't think it'll do England any good though, they've clearly got to give Barkley, Henderson, and Wilshere more playing time, if they want to improve.  They also need to get a better manager.

I've heard Gerrard called a failure on the International level and that's why he isn't 'world class'.  Rubbish, one man does not make a team, though there were times when Gerrard carried his country.  His statistical output for England has been impressive so far, especially when you consider he's played nearly every outfield position.

npgp90	gcp90	ccp90	ap90	ccv
0.22	0.46	1.97	0.24	12.3
pass%	bp%	sacc%	shot%	TTI90
80.2	25.9*	46.7	15.3	12.7
gap90	gsp90	gop90	tgop	gopd90
0.81	1.99	1.18	0.99	0.19
tp90	tack%	intp90	clrp90	bsp90
2.52	71.8	1.92	1.3	0.45

Those are solid numbers all around save his turnover rate.  His goals on pitch difference per 90 of 0.19 means he has been worth nearly an extra goal every five matches, +21.66 for his career.  Which isn't surprising when he was actually played a part in a quarter of his side's goals when he plays.

I don't really care if others don't think he's world class, but saying it is because he doesn't perform on the international stage is not valid.  In reality, he's played quite well and if it's because he's never won a Euro or a World Cup, I guess Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, Rooney, Robben, Van Persie, and anybody else who hasn't played for Germany, Spain, Italy, or Brazil in the past 12 years isn't 'world class' either.

Coutinho, Sterling, & Agger all had higher gopds than Suarez last year

The winner of 'goals on pitch difference' for Liverpool last season was Coutinho with Sterling and Agger coming up 2nd and 3rd respectively.  Similar to +/- that is used in basketball, gopd measures the amount of goals a team scored against amount allowed while that player is on the pitch.  Here are the results for relevant LFC players from last season:

	mins	pp90	ga	gap90	gs	gsp90	diff
Coutinho	2323	25.8	37	1.43	78	3.02	1.59
Sterling	2220	24.7	31	1.26	69	2.80	1.54
Agger	1421	15.8	18	1.14	42	2.66	1.52
Suarez	2962	32.9	47	1.43	96	2.92	1.49
Sturridge	2267	25.2	31	1.23	68	2.70	1.47
Johnson	2515	27.9	38	1.36	79	2.83	1.47
Henderson	3129	34.8	42	1.21	93	2.67	1.47
Allen	1443	16.0	21	1.31	44	2.75	1.44
Skrtel	3221	35.8	50	1.40	99	2.77	1.37
Gerrard	2895	32.2	44	1.37	86	2.67	1.30
Flanagan	1890	21.0	38	1.81	63	3.00	1.19
Lucas	1896	21.1	27	1.28	49	2.32	1.04
Toure	1443	16.0	20	1.25	36	2.25	1.00
Sakho	1478	16.4	25	1.52	38	2.32	0.79

The gopd average for Liverpool was 1.33 per match, which does not bode well for Gerrard and anyone else below him on the table.  Flanagan is particularly dreadful being his 3 goal scored per 90 is second highest, but his 1.81 goals allowed is worst.  I'm at a loss for words when it comes to Sakho, maybe he just isn't that good, and if you would have asked me last week if selling Lucas was a good idea, I would have said absolutely not, but now I'm beginning to wonder if he's no longer of much value.

I'm not surprised by any of the players in the top five except for maybe Agger, who we should truly not sell, but Johnson at sixth is perplexing.  I figured he'd be much worse.  Maybe we should hold on to him for a little bit longer.

By the way, of all players who played at least 1000 league minutes last season, Aly Cissokho had the highest goal scored per 90 at 3.05 and highest gopd at 1.73. Go figure.

Jordan Henderson, the would-be King

Jordan Henderson has come a long way since his Sunderland days.  When Dalglish bought him in June of 2011 for a staggering £16m, I was more than a bit skeptical.  Paying that much for a relatively unproven soon-to-be 21-year-old, was quite the risk.  Henderson displayed flashes of brilliance here and there, but was wholly inconsistent, not uncommon for a player his age.  Fortunately he has proven to be a skilled, versatile midfielder, who can and is willing to do what is ever needed to make Liverpool a better side.

year	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
age	20	21	22	23	24
app (sub)	23(10)	37	31(6)	16(14)	35
mins	2187	3210	2658	1535	3129
p90	24.3	35.7	29.5	17.1	34.8
goals	1	3	2	5	4
assists	5	4	1	4	7
chances	28	45	40	33	62
npg90	0.04	0.08	0.07	0.29	0.11
gcp90	0.25	0.20	0.10	0.29	0.32
ccp90	1.15	1.26	1.36	1.90	1.78
ap90	0.21	0.11	0.03	0.23	0.20
ccv	18.3	8.7	2.2	12.1	11.2
pass %	68.4	81.2	83.9	84.5	87.1
bp %	-	-	-	43.4	41.2
sacc %	0.25	0.29	0.35	0.33	0.15
shot %	0.03	0.07	0.05	0.15	0.12
TTI90	15.9	11.1	11.1	11.5	9.7

His progression over the past five years has been impressive to say the least, especially his passing.  What's most impressive though, is how valuable he has become on defence.  Last season, he became our most valuable midfielder when it comes to preventing goals.  His goals on pitch per 90 average was 1.18, considerably better than Gerrard (1.37), Lucas (1.28), or Allen (1.31).

To see how truly far Henderson has come I wanted to compare his stats from last season with his contemporaries, players who are of similar age (23-25) and play a similar position.  I went through each squad and found all the players that fit the criteria, they are Joe Allen, Nemanja Matic, Morgan Schneiderlin, Ashley Westwood, Fabian Delph, Sandro, Steven N'Zonzi, Ki Sung-Yeong, Victor Wanyama, Jake Livermore, and Vurnon Anita.  The stat comparison table is below.

The top 5 overall ranking:

1. Jordan Henderson                 4.73

2. Morgan Schneiderlin              5.00

3. Nemanja Matic                     5.33

4. Ashley Westwood                 5.67

5. Fabian Delph                        5.87

Not only was he top overall, Henderson was in the top five in eleven of the fifteen categories.  Among his peers, he is already king and if he continues his current progression, who knows how good he could become.

	Henderson	Matic	Schneiderlin	Westwood	Delph	Sandro
age	24	25	24	24	24	25
app(sub)	35	15(2)	31(2)	35	33(1)	10(7)
mins	3129	1365	2765	3077	3004	828
p90	34.8	15.2	30.7	34.2	33.4	9.2
goals	4	0	2	3	3	1
assists	7	4	1	2	2	0
chances	62	23	30	63	28	7
npg90	0.11	0	0.07	0.12	0.09	0.11
gcp90	0.32	0.26	0.1	0.15	0.15	0.11
ccp90	1.78	1.51	0.98	1.84	0.83	0.76
ap90	0.20	0.26	0.03	0.06	0.06	0
ccv	11.2	17.2	3.1	3.2	7.2	0
pass %	87.1	84.8	89.3	82.9	83.7	84.4
bp %	41.2	31	35.6	28.3	38.3	29.6
sacc %	32.7	15.3	25.8	25	25	23.5
shot %	8.2	0	6.5	10.7	8.3	5.9
TTI90	9.7	12.5	9.3	9.6	10.5	10.8
intp90	1	2	2.2	1.4	1.7	3.3
clrp90	2	4	1.5	0.9	1.5	2.4
tp90	2.4	3.7	3.7	1.6	3	2.6
ts%	42.8	41.5	47.8	47.6	49.4	42.6
gap90	0.86	0.46	1.14	1.64	1.62	1.63

	N'Zonzi	Sung-Yeong	Wanyama	Livermore	Anita	Allen
age	25	25	23	24	25	24
app (sub)	34(2)	25(2)	19(4)	34(2)	28(6)	15(9)
mins	3041	2196	1659	3054	2457	1443
p90	33.8	24.4	18.4	33.9	27.3	16
goals	2	3	0	3	1	1
assists	1	1	0	4	1	0
chances	32	28	7	34	38	18
npg90	0.06	0.08	0	0.09	0.04	0.06
gcp90	0.09	0.16	0	0.21	0.07	0.06
ccp90	0.95	1.15	0.38	1	1.39	1.13
ap90	0.03	0.04	0	0.12	0.04	0
ccv	3.2	3.6	0	11.8	2.9	0
pass %	87.2	90.7	84.3	83	83.8	86.7
bp %	36.8	42.1	38.9	38.9	30.7	38
sacc %	19.4	35	12.5	17.9	19	42.1
shot %	6.5	7.5	0	7.7	4.8	5.3
TTI90	10.7	7.2	12.6	11.7	10.2	9.8
intp90	1	0.9	1.8	1.5	1.6	1.6
clrp90	0.8	0.9	2.8	0.8	1	1.3
tp90	1.8	1.7	3.5	2	1.8	4.2
ts%	47.6	55.6	48.2	45.8	45	56
gap90	1.33	1.72	0.76	1.36	1.65	1.31