Fabio Borini officially signed for Liverpool on July 13th and even before he joined there was immense speculation on the future of Andy Carroll. A loan deal for Liverpool’s most expensive signing is looking likely although there have been many fans that believe that Andy should be kept. This article will look at Borini’s stats at Roma in the 2011/12 season and compare these to the Liverpool strikers stats. The strikers used in this comparison will be Luis Suarez, Andy Carroll & Craig Bellamy with the future of the latter two being in question.
What does Fabio Borini bring to Liverpool FC?
To try to analyse Borini’s qualities we’ve used some of the statistics available (via WhoScored.com) and compared them to Liverpool’s current strikers (those that still remain with the club). Here’s how Fabio Borini describes himself:
I’d describe myself as a player that never gives up and I run a lot.
There was more in his description about his celebration:
My celebration is a knife between the teeth. In Italy it means a warrior or someone who never gives up and will always get up if they fall down. Â At Swansea and Roma the fans liked it, so I hope to show it to Liverpool fans as well.
From his own words we can derive that Fabio Borini will fill the gap that has been made by Dirk Kuyt’s departure (workhorse). With news breaking that Fabio is not going to take a full holiday this summer (had up to 1st August) in order to return to training with Liverpool early and settle in is further proof that he is not scared of hard work and of his commitment to the team already.
He’s going to be a grafter and we’ve got some stats to illustrate this point of view. If you look at the table below you can see that Fabio Borini’s statistics when it comes to tackling or intercepting is a notch above the rest of the side. He intercepts a lot more than Suarez which would fit with Borini’s explanation of himself; hounding defenders down to make a mistake or an incorrect pass.
It’ll be interesting to see Fabio’s stats next season because Brendan Rodgers has certainly gone for Borini for a reason – he wants him to defend from the front and the stats show that he’ll fit the bill perfectly in Rodgers’ system. There are improvements to be made though, his passing accuracy could improve, his creativity could be a lot better too however one other area that Fabio Borini steals a march on his counter-parts is his minutes per goal stat. He averaged a league goal for Roma every 194.78 minutes which was in fact better than any Liverpool player last season. If he can replicate that form this season he will be a Kop favourite very quickly.
Impressive Bellamy
It would be an injustice not to mention the impressive Craig Bellamy stats in the illustration above. He’s topped in half of the statistics displayed above – the biggest compliment that can be paid to Craig is that we wish he could have played every game last season. He was very effective in creating and scoring. He would also fit the Brendan Rodgers formation perfectly however there are rumours of a Cardiff return for Craig which would be a shame. If Liverpool sell both Andy Carroll and Craig Bellamy there will have to be attacking replacements brought in as that would leave only be two 1st team strikers on the books in Suarez and Borini.
Fabio Borini: Most Productive Starting Position
Using the stats available on Fabio Borini we’ve found that Fabio Borini scored the majority of his goals when he was started as a left-wing forward (LWF). He scored five of his nine goals when started as a LWF and averaged a goal every 1.4 games in this position (5 goals in 7 starts) whilst managing a goal every 3.5 games when started as a right-wing forward (RWF) and a goal every 3 games when playing the centre forward (CF) position.
On the basis of these stats there’s a good case for Fabio Borini to start as a LWF for Liverpool FC. Of Borini’s strength’s, that have been reported, one is his ability to cut in and shoot and the other is that he can finish chances very well too. It will be very interesting to see where Brendan plays him but on the basis of these stats we’d prefer Fabio to start on the left.
Luis Suarez Position?
There have been a lot of calls for Luis Suarez to start wide right as he’s been menacing over there and tormented some defences in the league. However whilst conducting a similar analysis on Luis’s goals via starting position it is again self-explanatory as Luis has scored all of his goals when start as a centre forward.
What Luis gives in the wide areas is a lot of creativity however Luis as a CF drifts into any space wide behind defenders regardless so Liverpool won’t miss anything if Luis is always started as a centre forward. Liverpool require more goals from Luis however all of the pressure should not be on him either so Borini’s capture could relieve some of that pressure which Andy Carroll couldn’t do last season.
That would leave the RWF position open – with Maxi and Kuyt sold and Bellamy looking to go there is a spot opened up in the 4-3-3 formation that Liverpool are likely to play. There have been names mentioned in the press like Theo Walcott and Clint Dempsey however only Walcott would fit the RWF position unless Rodgers plans to play Joe Cole on the right of the front three?
Conclusion
There are a lot decisions to be made by Brendan Rodgers when it comes to his first eleven but Fabio Borini looks like he should find a place in the starting eleven when judging by his stats from last season. More impressive than Suarez in five of the stats displayed above he will add a lot of bite to the Liverpool attack as well as a never say die attitude. The fact that he knows how Brendan Rodgers sets out his teams will also be a massive bonus. We expect big things from Fabio next season, preferably from the left!
Both of the images above created using Stats via WhoScored.com, Fabio Borini stats via WhoScored.com – 2011/12 Liverpool player stats via the EPLIndex Stats Centre (Subscribe Now!)
