Liverpool 0, Hull City 0: Five things learnt

1. Joe Allen isn't championship material.
Well, he would be great in the Championship, but Liverpool will never win anything starting him.  He's good for a mid-table club, but if we are going to be serious contenders, we need players who can take us to that level.  I like Joe Allen and think he's about as good as he can be, but it still isn't good enough.  Seriously, would he be anything but a reserve at Chelsea or Man City?

2. We can play defense.
Hull is not a top five side, but they are far from the relegation discussion.  They are capable of scoring goals, but today, even with Ben Harfa starting they were hardly a threat.  I just hope this positive, one of the few we can take from the match, is a trend for the future.  Still, I think Skrtel and Lovren went too far forward at times and that will hurt us against better clubs.

3. Balotelli is useless as the lone striker/forward.
The game tilted completely in Liverpool's favor once Lambert came on.  Prior to that, Sterling and Balo tried to team up, but it just wasn't working as Sterling wants to stay on the flanks and it appears to confuse the Italian.  Lambert may be the perfect companion for Balo as his passing ability gives Super Mario chance after chance.  The problem is the 32-year-old lacks the ability to be effective more than 30 minutes on the pitch so using him as a 60 minute sub is our best bet, unfortunately that means an hour of watching Balotelli play defence.

4. Coutinho is a highly effective second half sub.
He was gangbusters when he came on today and was the major catalyst in giving us a chance to win.  If only Balotelli would have converted that last second goal...

5. Manquillo is better than Glen Johnson.
If you didn't know that by now, then give it up.  Johnson turns over the ball consistently and can't play defence while Manquillo is a positive force on both sides of the ball.  At least when the Spaniard makes mistakes we can cough it up to youth, Glen Johnson is just rubbish.  Sell him in the transfer window, Rodgers... if anyone will take him.

Prince is suing Sterling over his hair plus five things learnt from the Boro penaltipalooza

1. Where was Enrique before the 109th minute? Didn't he start? It was almost if Rodgers held him back to protect the undisciplined Sakho.  Maybe he was afraid Old Man Kolo would get infected with catchus outofpositionus, the virus that deludes our centre backs to go forward at the worst of times, the Ivorian may try to roll his wheelchair into the opponent's box.  It was not only the inclusion of Suso and the realized ability of our players that they are capable of shooting the thing called a ball, but once Enrique started getting involved, the Boro defence really started to open up.

2. Rickie Lambert needs to go 'Syd Barret' on us all. Seriously, he should show up at the next match with all his shaved off: beard, scalp, eyebrows, legs, chest, the whole kitten kaboodle.  Then he should act like a man possessed, cussing himself and using crazy antics to baffle the opposition defense.  In the very least it'll make him faster, right? Eh.

3. Adam Lallana is a fantastic Championship player. He reminds me a lot of a young Adam Johnson, dancing around the pitch, making moves and breaking ankles reminiscent of Allen Iverson back in the day.  Of course, he is only a year younger than Johnson and though he did show some flash on the dribble, he did little else.  Twenty six million pounds! Don't think about it, I can see Del Boy's eyes popping out of his head before he almost dies of laughter.

4. What happened to the side that played Tottenham? The first thought is that we had Sturridge, but was he really that much of a factor?  He didn't really do much, he had one key pass, that's it.  Was starting he and Balotelli the secret?  Maybe, but doubtful.  One thing that is apparent is Moreno was more involved on attack versus Spurs than he was at Villa and West Ham.  The left back held the ball 10.9% of the time at White Hart Lane compared to 6.4% versus the Villans and 6.1% at Boleyn Ground.  Maybe the left back position is the biggest catalyst when it comes to Rodgers' tactics, let's why not find out.  Another factor was time spent on the ball, we whizzed that thing around the pitch like it was wasp nest in Sir Alec Ferguson's head.  Whatever we did pre-match to make us look that fresh and quick, Rodgers needs to repeat every match.

5. Raheem Sterling needs to work on his killer instinct. Is it just me or is Sterling's hair getting more and more Prince like with each match?  Let's have a comparison:

It's getting there, lad, but if he comes out full Purple Rain one match, I may lose the plot.  Anyhow, he has to learn to be selfish and shoot the ball more, it's the only way he'll ever get any better.  Plus, he just seems such a nice kid, he really needs to find his inner demon and unleash it on the ball at the proper time, his penalty yesterday and some of his better recent opportunities for a goal have fallen flat.

Liverpool 2, Middlesbrough 2: Weed the garden, Rodgers

Honestly, I don't know where to begin with this one.  I fought sleep and death from boredom throughout the match that could have been a 'how not to play football' instruction video and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  I felt like I was having a flashback from a childhood zoo trip where I had to search aimlessly at an exhibit for 15 minutes hopelessly hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare giant elephant shrew.

Liverpool played beyond poor and it was frankly embarassing.  We needed penalties to defeat a side that had no right to be on the same pitch as we were and once again, the same issues we have been dealing with recently, surfaced again.  Unfortunately, we can now add another as well, 'movement off the ball'.  The endless vertical back-and-forth passing and everyone standing around, waiting their turn to touch the magic football was dreadful.   There was only one decent example of movement off the ball, when Enrique broke forward to start the series of events leading to the second goal.

I'll just come out and say it, Rickie Lambert was a bad buy.  He has either lost a step since last season or the whole damn world has sped up a notch.  It's not just his pace that is lacking, but his quickness as well.  Everytime he gets the ball it's like he's standing in a tar puddle, not to mention the Elephant man's bones could predict where his next pass attempt is going.  It's time to wave the white flag, give Lambert a bunk in the Reserves' house, and let him play out his contract there.  He can title his autobiography, 'I got to play 136 minutes for Liverpool and my beard is better for it.'

Another player I have a big problem with is Lallana.  Man of the match?! Are you kidding me?  Was that halo of Anglo-Saxon Britishness glowing so bright above his head that no one noticed all he did was dance around the pitch like Cristiano Travolta and then throw the ball away?  If 'Out of Bounds' was a player on our side, he completed three amazing, perfect passes to him.  All the rest, save the 'no look' back heel were painfully obvious and lead to nothing.

A look at the statistics further shows Lallana's showmanship.  He turned over the ball 17 times, was 3 of 16 on cross attempts, and had no chances created.  Outstanding!  Markovic was apparently 'terrible' despite the fact his stats are very similar to the 'Chosen One' (14 turnovers, 0 for 1 crosses, also no chances created).  The only thing that baffled me about Markovic was his inability to shoot the ball, he was like a deer in highlights every time he got a chance to thump it.  Sterling shows this at times as well, maybe Rodgers has put the fear of God in them regarding bad shots and the 19-year-old and the 20-year-old are traumatized.  Oh yeah, Sterling gets the excuse of being 19, but Markovic is too old for that, right?

Speaking of youngsters, it was quite clear that Rodgers gave Suso a 'shoot away' speech when he took the pitch and the Spaniard took it to heart, taking 4 shots in 22 minutes.  Despite spending less time on the pitch than any other LFC player, he had the most shots and tied Sterling with the team lead with two shots-on-goal.  It also seemed to really open up the match.  Wonder what would have happened if Lazar and Sterling had done so in the first half.

We're going to improve, right?  I mean this match was a step forward? I don't think so.  We played Middlesbrough at Anfield for Christ's sake and still had trouble marking players, still had trouble communicating on defence, still couldn't create space, and were still more predictable than Augustus Gloop near a chocolate river.  These are issues that have gotten worse in each of the four matches.  Rodgers is the gardener and needs to weed it out or else suffer the consequences of sub-par production.

England will go only as far as they let Sterling take them

The Three Lions weren't very good tonight and were lucky to get the win.  The first half was forgettable at best with England putting on a clinic on how not to win a match.  Tactically, Hodgson further showed he is oblivious to, well, tactics, football, reality, etc.  Starting Sterling in the middle doesn't work if you don't have any players on the pitch who can play wide and create space for him.  In fact, the two goals were both products of our 31 on the flanks, while he seemed lost most of the time in the middle.  Not to mention he had Wilshere, Hendo, and Delph crowding him.

In the second half, England seemed more composed.  They absorbed the attempts on attack from Switzerland well, were more relaxed on the ball in general, and let the match come to them.  By the way, nearly every single legitimate goal chance for the Swiss were offside, though I believe they were only called once.  It was a decent display of defence, especially for Cahill, and even Phil Jones was adequate, though he still did his normal bonehead moves like clearing the ball and conceding a corner despite no opposition players near.

The home side dominated possession at 56% to 44% and were the better passers with a completion rate of 90.6% to England's 88.5% while completing nearly a hundred more passes overall.  Fabian Delph, who put in a solid performance, came up a pass short of perfection, going 38 for 39.  Rickie Lambert posted the highest attacking efficiency rating ever of 1.50 getting an assist on his only official touch of the match.  I am a bit baffled at why people thought Rooney had a good match, his attacking efficiency score was 0.651, while his overall was 0.635.  He was most hurt with his 17 give-aways.

In the end, it was all about Sterling being allowed to do what he does best, even if it was only for a few possessions.  If Hodgson starts Sterling in the middle again, he has to start Milner and Oxalade-Chamberlain on the wings with Sturridge up front when healthy, either Welbeck or Rooney when he isn't.  I know it's sacrilegious not to start the captain, but honestly, he doesn't deserve it anyhow.

Suspicious character seen leaving England training following Sturridge injury

There's been an alert issued for the individual who resembles this photo:

Officials are baffled who this person could be.  He has been labeled as 'legged and useless', but please heed all caution.  He is apparently unstable and thinks he's worth more than he actually is.  He has yet to be charged with any crime, but considered a dangerous individual except in front of goal.  If you see him, please alert local officials, but if you feel threatened, it is advised to produce a net of some sort which appears to 'freeze' him.

England officials are not confident of a conspiracy, but Rickie Lambert has been taken into questioning.  Once again, this individual has apparently learned to use all his assets, including his teeth from a certain former LFC player, and should be considered 'mouthed and dangerous'.  Take extra precaution if he appears with a female who is clearly out of his league.  Thank you for your cooperation.

'Special' accommodations & menu items of Giggsy and Gazzo's Hotel Football uncovered

Just how statistically poor was Balotelli vs Spurs?

Before all you fan boys get out your stakes out and start your trash can fires, this post isn't going to be a complete slagging of Balotelli.  Everyone has to understand the expectations that come with a name like 'Super' Mario.  Unfortunately, the fact that we didn't pay £24m for his loan move (you're chum, Falcao) won't matter, even if we had gotten him on a free, he will always be a target for the press and opposition supporters.  He didn't do himself any favors against Spurs though.

Balotelli had 34 possessions (or touches) at White Hart Lane, completed just 8 of 16 passes, took 5 shots, but only one was on-goal.  Factor in his (lack of) defensive contributions and he was accountable for 12 negative changes of possession in 61 minutes.   He did have a chance created and three clearances though.

His attacking efficiency ended up being 0.324, the worst on the team.  For perspective, Lazar Markovic who has played a similar 59 minutes, destroys 'Super' Mario with a 0.744.  Sturridge who is worst on the team among minutes played qualifiers is still better than his Italian strike-mate with a 0.532.  Even Ricky Lambert betters him with 0.625.

He had a poor debut, you can either admit it or take residence in delusion land, where Glenn Johnson is still a good right back.  When he has such matches, he has to do the one thing that can be quantified, he has to create space.  He has to be a threat, go to open areas and force the opposition defence take notice, so Sturridge, Sterling, and other teammate have room to operate.

My feed was down the past couple of days so if you want to go to any missed articles they are below:
Liverpool has played the hardest schedule, boasts the best defence
Wanted: Yaya Sanogo, for impersonating a footballer (Match Day 3 morsels)
Skrtel top defensively, Flamini take over attack & overall efficiency
Tottenham 0, Liverpool 3: Sometimes moments of madness

The return of Robo-Skrtel

Liverpool 2, Southampton 1: The match in stats
- Martin Skrtel had 20 clearances.  He led Liverpool and the league last season with 11.5 per 90 minutes and is well on his way to doing so again this season.  Lovren was second with 11 and Manquillo was third with 5.

- Skrtel also led the side in touches with 111, Manquillo was second with 109, and Lovren third with 86.

- Skrtel won the most aerial duels as well with 7 while Lovren was second with 6.

- Lovren led all players with an absolutely ridiculous passing rate of 96%, Skrtel was 2nd at 91%, and Gerrard third at 89%.

- Manquillo led the side with 6 tackles, Jordan Henderson was 2nd with 3.

- Gerrard completed 10 of 13 of long balls.  He lead all outfield Prem players last year with 257.

- Daniel Sturridge attempted 20 passes the entire match, Joe Allen attempted that many in 31 minutes.  Sturridge, a career 80% passer, completed 17 while Allen, a career 90% passer, completed 16.

- Raheem Sterling dribbled past 5 opponents, but was dispossessed 6 times.

-Rickie Lambert had more tackles, one, than Glen Johnson and Lucas Leiva combined.

- Every starter had at least one interception except Sturridge.  Lovren and Manquillo led the team with 4 a piece.

- No Liverpool player committed more than a single foul.  Thank you, Clattenburger.

- One of Glenn Johnson's shots landed in a rubbish bin, the other knocked an ice cream cone out of a six-year-old girl's hand.

- Lucas had a shot on target, created a chance, and dribbled past an opponent.  Either he passed a few bills to the statistician before the match or it's his Uncle Joenihno recording the numbers.

- The only other player to do as Lucas did above was Raheem Sterling, he had 3 shots on target and 2 key passes though.

Liverpool 2, Dortmund 0: Thoughts at the break, panic on the streets of Merseyside

Victor Moses, Abel Xavier, Gabby Paletta, and Mark Gonalez, what do all these Liverpool legends have in common?  They scored on their LFC debut and their goals actually counted.  Iago Aspas scored in his first pre-season match and we all know where it went from there.  It was nice for Lovren to be gifted a set-piece goal on his debut, but at the end of the day, meaningless.  He has been impressive though.

When it's your first match for your new club, regardless if it's preseason or not, and you are shouting 'orders' at your new teammates, that's impressive.  Lovren brings a much-needed presence to the club, someone who is not afraid to take command and responsibility for his side's result.  Carragher had that fire as did Reina in his first few years at the club, last season it was only Gerrard and even he wavered from even a few seasons ago.

Coutinho has been our best player so far, that assist was class and Gerrard-esque.  It's good to see the Brazilian is paying attention to his captain's endless talents.  I can't really say the same for Sterling who has been wasteful to say the least.  He has to do better when he's one-on-one on the box.  Studge is being Studge, as long as he's healthy, he's a threat to score every match.

This is about as close to European football that a friendly can get.  I'm relatively confident this isn't Dortmund's best eleven, but they have been 'spritely'.  Their pace, quickness, and passing has been trying, but our defence, save Glen Johnson on two legs and not his ass, has shut down their every opportunity.  I'm hoping Kelly or me Uncle Joe comes on in the second half for our challenged fullback.

The rest of the side has been 'adequate' but going up 2-0 in the first fifteen minutes seemed to take a little off from both sides.  Since then, Dortmund seems less driven to score and Liverpool more content to take the result.  Hopefully it'll open up in the second half and we'll see another goal or two from Liverpool.  It would be especially nice to see Lambert find the back of the net.

Matchday One: trends vs Southampton

In the past 20 seasons, Liverpool is 10-7-3 on opening day, 4-2-1 at home.  The Reds have scored 29 goals overall, but only 8 at home, allowed 20 overall, though only 5 as hosts.  At Anfield, they've won 1-0 three times & 2-1 once. Against opponents that finished lower on the Prem table than them the previous season, they are 10-2-7 overall and undefeated at home, 4-1-0.

Southampton is 6-9-5 in their past 20 opening day fixtures, 4-5-1 on the road. They've scored 20 goals, 10 on the road, allowed 30, 15 as visitors.  The Saints have either allowed multiple goals or shut-out their opponents away from St. Mary's, drawing 0-0 against West Brom in 2003 and beating Coventry 1-0 in 1999.  They've drawn 2-2 three times, twice against Derby County.  Overall, they are 2-3-6 against opponents that finished higher on the table the previous season, 1-1-3 away from home.

Liverpool is 13-6-7 head-to-head against Southampton overall in the past 20 seasons.  They've met just once before in week one with Liverpool winning 2-1 at St. Mary's in 1998.  Liverpool leads the series, 7-3-3 at Anfield, though the Saints won there last season, 1-0.  Jamie Carragher scored one of his four career league goals against Southampton in a 7-1 drubbing of the Saints in January 1999.

The previous season second-place finisher is 16-3-1 at home versus the previous season eighth-place finisher.  The only time the lower finishing club has beaten the higher is in 1997, when Wimbledon beat Newcastle, 3-1.  Only once in the past 20 seasons have the second place finisher from the previous season hosted the previous season eighth-place finisher in the opening week, in 2008 when Chelsea beat Pompey, 4-0.

The demise of Southampton has been well over-exaggerated, they have added Dušan Tadić, who I've written about before, and Graziano Pellè, who finished second in goals scored in the Eredivisie last season.  They are probably upgrades of Lallana and Lambert and Lovren's spot will most likely be filled by Maya Yoshida or Jos Hooiveld.  Even losing Schneiderlin, if it happens, won't be that much of a loss with James Ward-Prose getting more pitch time.  As long as they have Fonte, Davis, Wanyama, Cork, and Ward-Prowse, they are going to be hard to score against, and Gaston Ramirez, who was more efficient than Lallana last year, will finally get the chance to prove his worth.

Loic Remy for £8m & Borini for £14m. The apocalypse is upon us.

We have apparently sealed the deal to gain a striker with an amazing goals on pitch difference and let go of one who does not.  I've written about what Loic Remy did for Newcastle last season, when he was on the pitch, they were a much better side.  In fact, had he played all 38 matches for the Magpies, they could have possibly finished with 66 points and ahead of Man United.  Instead, they finished 10th with just 49.

How we got him for £6m less than we sold Borini is beyond me.  Borini does not have the pace to be a star in the Prem.  Sunderland may be the perfect fit for him as their 'grind it out' style better suits his game.  I understand he is still 'young' by many standards, but even at 23, he's had his chance to prove he can be of value to a 'big' club like Liverpool.  If he was smart, he'd go back to Italy, where 'technique' is favored over pace.  That's called sarcasm, Serie A is far from technically superior to the Prem and uses that excuse to make up for it's home grown snail's pace.

If the rumours are true and we've added Remy, that makes three solid adds and one which, at best, will go done as 'meh'.  If Lambert will just let the game come to him like he did at Southampton, he'll be a great contribution, but if he tries to force things, he won't see the pitch much and will be gone after this season. He's not the one I'm referring to as 'meh' though, if Loic Remy is worth only £8m, Lallana should have come on a free.  Speaking of additions, Can was apparently injured today in our 2-1 win over Preston North End, I really hope he it's just a niggling and he'll be okay, we need him to compete for minutes pronto.

Speaking of that match, Jordon Ibe was apparently quite impressive.  I didn't get to watch it due to other obligations, but I did get to see some of the highlights.  This first video shows Ibe finding Suso right outside the box, then the Spaniard does his magic with a fine curler.  The second video shows Ibe hooking up Kristoph Peterson for his second goal of the pre-season.  Will Rodgers take the latter on the tour of the US now?  It looks like he'll have an open spot now that Borini is gone.

How Liverpool & Suarez can benefit from his ban

Instead of looking on the punishment FIFA dished out Suarez as a huge dark cloud that will doom our season, let's look at some possible positives.  First and foremost, Suarez needs some time off.  Despite his two goals in the England match, he was dreadful, and he was even more useless against Italy.  In fact, since his hat-trick against Cardiff on March 22nd, he scored 3 goals and had 1 assist in our final 8 league matches.  In the previous 25 matches, he had 28 goals and 12 assists, he is clearly burnt out and an extended rest will do him wonders.

His absence allows others to get more playing time, specifically Emre Can, probably Rickie Lambert, and possibly Samed Yeşil & Jerome Sinclair.  Though I believe Rodgers brought Can in to eventually be our first choice DM, he can play box-to-box just as effectively.  I for one can't wait to see how he, Gerrard, Hendo, and Lucas are played and interact. I also think Yeşil and Sinclair deserve decent chances to show us what they can offer, probably just in cup ties though.  What I don't wish is for Borini to get more pitch time.

Everybody stay calm, we still have Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho, and hopefully, Suso.  The latter might now benefit the most from Suarez' absence and I hope this convinces Rodgers to let him stay and play.  What worries me about Sturridge is that he will get burnt out as well, but if BR knows what's best for him, he'll let our number 15 stay home from all the off-season promotional tours and rest up until the season starts.  If we truly added Sanchez then we'll have even less issue with player wear.  If we add Shaqiri, we won't miss a beat.

Finally, we are now no longer one of the favorites to win the league, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  Pressure's off, no one thinks we have a chance, much like last season.  If we can come out and be competitive until Suarez' return, we'll be in great position to win the league.  I have a feeling if Suarez is still around, he's gonna come out on fire and give everyone else a rest as he wins a few fixtures by himself.  He's done it before.

Luke Shaw for £27m? No thanks, we got Flanagan

Rumor has it Luke Shaw is headed to Man U for £27m.  That's a preposterous amount for a player who will definitely not become the next Gareth Bale.  In fact, he'll be lucky if he can become the next Leighton Baines or Aleksandar Kolarov.  Here's a look at stats from last season for Shaw, Flanagan, and a few other top left backs:

	Shaw	Flanagan	Baines	Azpilicueta	Kolarov
age	19*	21	29	24	28
app(subs)	35	23	32	26(3)	21(9)
mins	2990	1890	2838	2325	1977
goals	0	1	5	0	1
assist	1	1	4	0	7
chances	33	13	48	12	34
npgp90	0	0.05	0.06	0	0.05
gcp90	0.03	0.1	0.29	0	0.36
ccp90	0.99	0.62	1.5	0.47	1.6
pass%	79	83.7	85.8	80.6	81.2
bp%	41.6	42.6	41.4	37.1	43.5
sacc%	41.7	42.9	23.8	40	24.5
shot%	0	14.3	23.8	0	1.9
tp90	2.2	3.8	3	3.8	2.3
tack %	58.7	45.7	60.3	52.9	56.2
intp90	1.1	1.9	1.1	1.9	1.4
clrp90	3.7	3.6	2.5	5.3	2.8
dribpp90	0.7	1.9	0.6	1.1	0.8
bsp90	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.1
adwp90	1.8	1.4	0.4	1.3	1.7
adwon%	56.5	46.8	41.2	58.6	71.7
TTI90	11.6	9.2	9.1	10.1	10.9

* Shaw will turn 19 next month.

Compared to Flanagan, Shaw is the better chance creator, more efficient tackler, and significantly superior in the air, but our number 38 has a higher pass rate, nearly doubles his counterpart's tackles and clearances, and holds onto the ball better.  If Southampton were to offer Shaw for Flanagan, Rodgers would be an idiot not to take them up on it, but that would never happen.  It's not that Shaw is that much better than our 'Red Cafu' and the distance between their productivity may never be much, but Shaw has more potential.

Comparing Shaw to the others above, he is probably most similar to Kolarov.  The Serbian is a great attacking left back, but is not an exceptional defender like Azpilicueta.  Would I have paid £27m for Kolarov at (soon-to-be) 19, if I had known then what I do now? Probably, but with Shaw there's no such luxury.  It's still a crap shoot with all that can happen in his young career.

The one thing that will improve at a bigger club is the quality of his teammates.  No offense to Southampton, but Adam Lallana is no Steven Gerrard and Rickie Lambert is not even a poor man's Rooney.  Having players around him who are quicker and more talented overall should improve his numbers.  It certainly helps Kolarov.

If I've said it once, I've said 'til your eyes bleed, if we are going to splash that kind of cash for a left back or really any player, it should be Ricardo Rodriguez. He is the real deal and can provide coverage on the wing as well.  Shaw is just not worth the risk when we have fully capable coverage in Flanagan.

Rickie Lambert makes Fabio Borini 'surplus to the cause'

With the addition of Rickie Lambert, Borini's days appear to have become numbered.  Who scored? probably sums it up best.  According to them:

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.

Assessing Rickie Lambert

When I first heard we had spent £4m for Rickie Lee Lambert, I almost lost my shit.  Really?  Really, Mr. Rodgers?  What happened to our no spending for players over 23?  Not only that, but Rickie Lee Lambert, 32 year old striker who has spent a total of 2 seasons in top flight football?  It sounds crazy, but... it just might work.

He obviously won't be a starter, and if he does, we'll be in a world of shit to begin with.  I can see him being beneficial as a late match spark, as he provides a different approach then Sturridge or Suarez, and he'll also get starts in lesser cup matches, which should prove beneficial to his stat padding.

Listen, I don't dislike Lambert, I just think he's a poor man's Dirk Kuyt.  Might as well bring him back, if you're going to go that route.