The five signings Liverpool missed out on this year

There were quite a few gems for taking at the beginning of the transfer window, unfortunately most of the young, talented future stars have been taken.

1. Alfred Finnbogason, 25, Real Sociedad
Real upgraded from Griezmann when they picked up the Icelandic striker from SC Heerenveen.  He lead all scorers in the Eredivisie last season with 29 goals and also added 10 assists from 57 chances created.  The season before he scored 24 times.  He doesn't have all the physical attributes to out-muscle or speed past his opponents and relies on positional instinct and clinical finishing to score.

2. Dušan Tadić, 25, Southampton
Another Eredivisie product, Tadić lead the Dutch league in assists with 14 and chances created with 133.  He also scored 16 goals.  Southampton got him for £11m, considerably less for what we paid for the player he replaced.  I wrote about him here.

3. Yann M'Vila, 24, Inter Milan
One of the best defensive midfielder prospects under the age of 25 in Europe, M'Vila has found himself on loan in Italy for the next year.  He'll probably use that time to impress a future suitor and there will be aplenty.  His physical prowess, passing ability, and defensive instincts allow him to dominate matches in Serie A, especially considering he is not the fastest of players.  He also has an eye for attack, in his last season with Rennes, the 2012-13 season, he created 43 chances and posted an impressive 7.7 successful long balls per 90 at a 67.7% rate.

4. Kelechi Iheanacho, 17, Man City
If you watched Liverpool's preseason 'victory' over Man City at Yankee Stadium July 30, you may have noticed Iheanacho, He the only City player to convert a penalty.  Iheanacho introduced himself to the world at U17 World Cup, where he put in a performance for the ages.  He scored 6 goals and assisted on 5 more, a 1.77 goal created per 90 average might I add, to lead Nigeria to the title and winning the Golden Ball in the process.  He added the 2013 CAF Most Promising Player of the Year award to his cabinet as well.

5. Álvaro Morata, 21, Juventus
Morata's abilities and potential have been well-documented elsewhere and though I think he'll be a goal-scoring machine at the Turin club, don't expect much else.  Does it matter though?  The former Real Madrid starlet has Golden Boot potential, last season he averaged a goal every 90 minutes played and his above-Serie A-average pace should lead him to a very fruitful Juventus career.  His physical attributes alone would leave one to believe he may one day be successful in the Prem as well.

Ruben Pardo could be the next Gerrard

Ruben Pardo has also been called the next Xabi Alonso and rightfully so, the 21-year-ol Real Sociedad 'regista' is already a master passer, especially of the long ball.  Last season, he completed 155 of 215 long balls, a rate of 72.1%, those are Alonso (172/226, 76.1%) and Gerrard-esque (257/350, 73.4%) numbers.

Here's how Pardo and Gerrard compare from last season:

	Pardo	Gerrard
age	21	34
npg90	0.14	0.09
gcp90	0.53	0.81
ccp90	1.39	2.1
ap90	0.38	0.4
ccv	27.3	19.1
pass %	85.5	85.9
bp %	35.1	30.6
sacc %	45	51.7
shot %	15	27.1
TTI90	9.9	10.9
intp90	1.48	1.49
clrp90	0.39	2.83
drpp90	1.12	0.68
tp90	1.76	3
ts%	35.8	52.2
gap90	1.2	1.37
gsp90	2.01	2.67
gop90	0.81	1.3
tgop	0.18	1.32
gopd	0.63	-0.02

If you take away Gerrard's ten penalty goals, Pardo actually has a better goals created per 90, shot accuracy percentage, and shot percentage, but the Spaniard is a ways away from reaching Stevie-G's defensive prowess.  Pardo does have a lower turnover rate and probably the most impressive is his goals on pitch difference.  Where Gerrard is about even, Pardo makes his side 0.63 goals better per 90 minutes.

Pardo obviously has some work to do on defence, but the fact that he has such a great gopd, means he's got to be doing something right.  For a 21-year-old though, his attack stats are off the charts.  It is rare to find a young player with such composure on the ball, especially one who's pinpoint passing leads to a chance created value of 27.3.

If I were Rodgers, I would pay Sociedad his £24m release clause and loan him back if he's not ready to leave.  That may sound crazy, but there's no point in having him watch from the stands when he can develop in La Liga.

Karim 'Mercedes' Benzema is no Daniel 'La Ferrari' Sturridge

I have a mate who for years has been emphatically saying we should sign Benzema.  I just don't see it.  I don't think he's as good as advertised, but I've never crunched the numbers, so let's see how his stats from last season size-up with Sturridge.

	Benzema	Sturridge
npgp90	0.56	0.83
gcp90	0.85	1.1
ccp90	2.07	1.2
ap90	0.3	0.28
ccv	14.5	23.3
pass%	81.9	79.3
bp%	46.4	53.4
sacc%	45.1	42.4
shot%	16.7	21.2
TTI90	9.7	11
gap90	1.05	1.23
gsp90	2.75	2.7
gop90	1.7	1.47
tgop	1.74	1.32

Benzema's output isn't overwhelmingly impressive and definitely not worthy of £35-40m, which is his asking price.  Sturridge is the more prolific scorer and shows a higher football intelligence with his higher chance created value and shot percentage.  It's not that Benzema is wasteful in his pass and shot selection, he's just not as adept as our number 15.  Having superior pace than most forwards, Sturridge needs a set-up man with better pasing capabilities than Benzema, suprisingly we may already have that player in Rickie Lambert (18.6 ccv).

If we sign Markovic, I'm not sure we need any more attack-minded players.  We definitely don't need a player like Benzema, who does a lot of things well, but nothing in particular great.  The fact that he is surrounded by the caliber of player that he is at Madrid, his stats should at least show him to be more efficient.

Forget Benzema, forget trying to outscore our opponents every match, we need to go defensive.  One player we should try to buy is Real Sociedad's 21-year-old defensive midfielder Ruben Pardo.  He'll be the subject of my next post.

Griezmann to replace Suarez? That's mental!

Antoine Griezmann, the 23-year-old French International who did little to nothing in the World Cup, has made it known that he wants out of Real Sociedad.  Hopefully Rodgers will be smart and ignore him.  While France scored 8 goals in Brazil, Griezmann was on the pitch for 299 minutes and couldn't even manage an assist.

As for his efforts with Real Sociedad, the Frenchman benefits greatly from having Carlos Vela as a teammate.  In fact, Vela should be the player we go after.  How great would that be?  Bringing on the former Gunner to stick it to Arsene over the Sanchez debacle.

	Griezmann	Vela	Suarez
app(subs)	31(4)	35(2)	33
mins	2652	3104	2962
p90	29.5	34.5	32.9
goals	16	16	31
assist	3	12	12
chances	34	78	87
npgp90	0.54	0.41	0.94
gcp90	0.64	0.81	1.3
ccp90	1.15	2.26	2.6
ap90	0.1	0.35	0.37
ccv	8.7	15.4	14.2
pass%	77.2	78.7	74.8
bp%	46.6	42.9	44.1
sacc%	47.7	41.9	44.8
shot%	14.4	18.6	17.1
TTI90	10.9	11.2	17
gap90	1.49	1.48	1.43
gsp90	1.53	1.65	2.92
gop90	0.04	0.17	1.49
tgop	0.18	0.18	1.32

As you can see from the stats above, Vela was much more valuable to Sociedad than Griezmann.  The Frenchman's stats aren't necessarily bad, even though 34 chances created is pretty poor, but they pale in comparison to his Mexican teammate.  Griezmann is a poacher and not much else, Vela is the more complete player.

I'm not sure why Arsenal let Vela go, they never really gave him a chance to begin with.  In 6 years with the Gunners, he only appeared in 62 matches and was loaned out 3 times.  He hardly started either, accumulating 1051 minutes in 37 league appearances.  The only thing that would worry me is price, if Sociedad think they can get £20m for Griezmann, they are going to want Man United money for Vela.