OK, so Lucas made 56 passes, 9 of which were unsuccessful (according to Guardian statistics) during the match against United. What does it mean though? On its own, it means that Lucas had an 84% pass completion rate which seems OK but when compared to that of Paul Scholes at the other end, it looked quite awful. Scholes finished the match with a 92% completed pass rate amassing a whopping total of 72 passes in the process. It should be noted that only Michael Carrick surpassed Scholes in the amount of passes made with 85 but with a far less impressive pass completion rate of 78%.
Admittedly, a big Homer Simpson d'oh moment. Here I was trying to statistically prove to the doubters that Lucas was more than a decent player but all I ended up doing is prove the complete opposite, statistically.
But then, an epiphany. It wouldn't be fair to compare Scholes with Lucas or for that matter, Carrick with Lucas for the sole reason that Lucas doesn't play for United and neither does Scholes play for Liverpool with the two clubs employing very differing styles of play. So, if Ferguson requires that his midfielders pass the ball around more often then, so be it. The same standard shouldn't apply to Lucas or any other Liverpool player, at least not as a single gauge to measure player abilities.What would be fair then?
I'd compare Lucas to Steven Gerrard. Eh? Compare an up and coming midfielder with a club legend and who is second only to the King himself in the eyes of Liverpool fans? Most certainly. If a player is to be deemed worthy of pulling on the TechFit of Liverpool, surely he can at the very least match the underperforming club captain. So, here goes...
Surprisingly to some or maybe to most. After all that, there is one question that's popped up but we'll leave that for another day...
Note: Changed chalkboard graphics from the original Flash one to normal images to make it widely viewable.
No comments:
Post a Comment