Comparing Thiago Alcantara’s 2019-20 stats to Liverpool’s existing midfielders
Liverpool are signing Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich – but how does he compare to their existing midfielders?
Thiago has entered the final 12 months of his contract at Bayern and is on his way to Anfield in a bargain £25million deal.
We’ve compared his 2019-20 stats from the Bundesliga campaign to the corresponding Premier League stats of Liverpool’s existing central midfield options: Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita, James Milner, Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Georginio Wijnaldum.
Goals and assists
Thiago isn’t renowned for his goalscoring exploits, registering three goals and no assists in 24 Bundesliga appearances in 2019-20 – a rate of a goal or assist every 590.6 minutes.
Henderson has been Liverpool’s most productive midfielder this season, contributing three goals and five assists at a rate of one every 270.5 minutes.
Wijnaldum has also provided three goals from midfield, but his direct goal contributions in the Premier League have been 846 minutes apart.
Keita (one goal and two assists at one every 184 minutes), Lallana (one goal and one assist at one every 187 minutes), Milner (two goals and two assists at one every 200.7 minutes), Oxlade-Chamberlain (three goals at one every 429 minutes) and Fabinho (two goals and two assists at one every 444 minutes) have also contributed.
Passing and attacking
On average, Thiago creates 1.0 chances per 90 minutes, which is more than Wijnaldum (0.5), Milner (0.9) and Fabinho (0.9).
Keita is out in front with 1.8 per 90 and Henderson is marginally ahead of Thaigo with 1.1 per 90. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lallana also make 1.0 key passes per 90.
The Spain international’s pass success rate of 90.5% is level with Wijnaldum and betters Keita (88.6%), Fabinho (87%), Milner (86.3%), Lallana (85.7%), Henderson (84.5%) and Oxlade-Chamberlain (83.5%).
Noted for his excellent technique, Thiago completes 3.6 successful dribbles per 90 minutes at a success rate of 85.7%.
That figure is higher than Jurgen Klopp’s current options in midfield. Keita leads the way for Liverpool with 2.3 per 90 at a success rate of 82.1%.
This is then followed by Oxlade-Chamberlain (1.9 at 59.3%), Wijnaldum (1.2 at 54.5%), Milner (0.9 at 100%), Henderson (0.7) at 58.3%), Lallana (0.5 at 41.6%) and Fabinho (0.4 at 66.6%).
Defensive contributions
Jurgen Klopp expects his midfielders to help out defensively and Thiago’s average of 2.3 tackles per 90 minutes betters Milner (1.5), Wijnaldum (1.1) and Oxlade-Chamberlain (1.0).
But Lallana (4.6), Keita (3.1), Fabinho (2.6) and Henderson (2.6) all post higher averages than Thiago in that regard.
In terms of interceptions per 90 minutes, Thiago comes in first place (2.3) ahead of Fabinho (1.5), Oxlade-Chamberlain (1.4), Keita (1.3), Lallana (1.2), Henderson (1.2), Milner (0.7) and Wijnaldum (0.6).
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