Jose Enrique | For or Against his Left-Wing role? Stats Analysis

Jose Enrique Tackling

His tackling hasn’t really changed that much since his move to left-wing. He’s still putting in challenges and winning them too. Jose is a beast so this part of his game is also an advantage at left-wing – attacking from the front is a key part of Brendan Rodgers’ game. Although he didn’t attempt any tackles against Spurs I don’t think this a part of the game that Jose will lose and will put that down to a one-off more than a decline in his defensive nature.

Jose Enrique Possession

Now this is where things go a little pear-shaped for Jose. As mentioned before “defending from the front” is good for the new Liverpool FC system however “keeping the ball” is even more important. The table below shows that Jose is winning the ball further up the pitch now which he hadn’t done before this season but he’s losing the ball even more now. The games against Chelsea, Wigan, Swansea and Tottenham averaged 22.25 possession losses per game since moving further up the pitch – this is a pretty poor showing. He must improve on this and maybe this was one of the reasons for Jose being moved back to left back against Southampton.

Jose Enrique Passing

After keeping the ball so well against Chelsea you’d have probably thought that Jose was going to improve with keeping the ball playing at left-wing. However he’s averaging 68% in the three games as a fully fledged left winger. This is not good enough and certainly goes against the “keep ball” strategy. I feel his passes are rushed at times and this is what causes his inaccuracy to be so high. He managed his lowest pass accuracy against Swansea with just 61%. In most games Jose will be the player who will have the lowest pass completion – surely something he needs to work on.

So is Jose Enrique a left winger or should he stay at left back?

The stats don’t lie – Jose has been a threat and his creativity is excellent as a left winger. However I feel his best role is of a left-wing-back. The game against Chelsea was probably his best performance with so many tackles won, good attacking play and link up with Suarez. There are pros and cons for his move to left-wing as shown above. The Newcastle game showed that Enrique can link up with Suarez by playing at left-back and in the recent move back to left back against Southampton Enrique found himself overlapping a lot more.

Maybe playing Jose at left-wing for a few games has opened his mind to the attacking side a lot more because he was definitely involved in attacks yesterday even though he was playing at left back and should have scored too after a great one-two with, yep you guessed it, Luis Suarez.

A lot of you will think that the advantage of his clear-cut creativity should mean that he should start at left wing however I feel it’s still not his best role and he should start at left back or left wingback when we play a three at the back. I find him terribly frustrating when he loses possession – maybe its just me but whilst the stats say he’s been excellent for the attacking side the results don’t show this. In the four games we beat only Wigan at home, we drew two and lost the other whilst moving back to left back got us a win against Southampton?

Either way the debate will continue – you can let me know what you think by leaving a comment below because the jury may still be out but for me – he’s our best left back and should really play in his most suited position. Oh and no more Downing at Left Back either please!

All of the stats from this article have been taken from the Opta Stats Centre at EPLIndex.com – Subscribe Now (Includes author privileges!) Check out our new Top Stats feature on the Stats Centre which allows you to compare all players in the league & read about new additions to the stats centre. 

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