One of the most important features of any title-winning team is having midfielders who consistently score and create goals. At present, Liverpool have Steven Gerrard and Dirk Kuyt who regularly chip in with goals and assists but we could always use one more. How about a midfielder who has scored/created 84 goals in the last 5 seasons? Sounds like a player Liverpool could use, right?
Well, the good news is, the club has already signed him!
I am, of course, talking about Charlie Adam.
I hadn't really looked into his goal/assist history until recently, but when I did I was massively impressed. Quite simply, Adam is a creative machine - Liverpool are very lucky to have him, and I think it's worth highlighting his creative strengths. Let's look at the facts:
Specific Measurable Creative Contribution (SMCC) - Last 5 seasons
* Appearances: 160
* Goals: 53 | Assists: 31 (84 total)
* Shots on target: 156
* Shots off target: 433
=
* Goal/assist every 1.9 games
* SMCC in 52% of games
* At least 3 shots on/off target per game
* Averages 16 goals/assists per season
Extremely impressive figures for a young midfielder, especially given the quality of players around Adam at Blackpool over the last few years (i.e. comparatively lower quality than Liverpool).
The Scot is still only 25, and his career SMCC figures so far eclipse those of even Steven Gerrard (between the ages of 20 and 25), which I will illustrate in another article soon.
And it doesn't stop there - in his 4 Liverpool games so far this season, Adam has scored 1 goal and created another 3, which is excellent.
At £8m, Kenny Dalglish has snapped up an absolute bargain, and if Adam continues his excellent form, there's a real chance he could be an ideal long-term replacement for Steven Gerrard.
Jaimie Kanwar
Well, the good news is, the club has already signed him!
I am, of course, talking about Charlie Adam.
I hadn't really looked into his goal/assist history until recently, but when I did I was massively impressed. Quite simply, Adam is a creative machine - Liverpool are very lucky to have him, and I think it's worth highlighting his creative strengths. Let's look at the facts:
Specific Measurable Creative Contribution (SMCC) - Last 5 seasons
* Appearances: 160
* Goals: 53 | Assists: 31 (84 total)
* Shots on target: 156
* Shots off target: 433
=
* Goal/assist every 1.9 games
* SMCC in 52% of games
* At least 3 shots on/off target per game
* Averages 16 goals/assists per season
Extremely impressive figures for a young midfielder, especially given the quality of players around Adam at Blackpool over the last few years (i.e. comparatively lower quality than Liverpool).
The Scot is still only 25, and his career SMCC figures so far eclipse those of even Steven Gerrard (between the ages of 20 and 25), which I will illustrate in another article soon.
And it doesn't stop there - in his 4 Liverpool games so far this season, Adam has scored 1 goal and created another 3, which is excellent.
At £8m, Kenny Dalglish has snapped up an absolute bargain, and if Adam continues his excellent form, there's a real chance he could be an ideal long-term replacement for Steven Gerrard.
Jaimie Kanwar
Agreed, we've not had enough goals from midfield over the last few years. Lets hope Henderson gets a few more and I'm certain downing will be chipping in the goals and assists before long
ReplyDeleteWell, to put things a little bit into perspective, Adam not only played with "lower quality" players but also played against "lower quality" opposition.
ReplyDeleteLet's also not forget that many of the goals he scored came from penaltys and therefore shouldn't be put into the equation.
That said, he has done well in a Red shirt so far and performed a lot better than Henderson who cost a lot more money ...
yep. adam is a great player. pure quality. will be the bargain of the season.
ReplyDeleteOf course penalties can be included in the equation, as we saw with the Everton Blackburn game at the weekend a penalty is not a gauranteed goal. In fact, if Adam had been our penalty taker against Sunderland maybe the game wouldn't have ended 1-1!
ReplyDeleteYeah, but when Kuyt. Suarez or Gerrard take our penalties, Adam won't have 8 penalty goals to his name as he had last season. So he will not provide an extra 10 goals to the Reds as the stats might suggest, but only 2.
ReplyDeleteYou can also do it the other way round: If Adam takes our penalties than Kuyt's or Suarez' or Gerrard's goal tally will suffer as a result and there contribution is reduced by 8.
Either way, what Adam adds extra is a lot less than 10 goals per season.
have any of u who commented realised weve allready signed charlie adam or is it just your a thick
ReplyDeleteI think we're just thick. Thanks for clearing that up.
ReplyDeleteIt's spurious to say that because one player has scored from a penalty that another player has lost out on the goals scored stats. By that logic any player within our squad could have been deemed to have missed out on 10 goals last season (assuming we had 10 penalties) just because he didn't take the penalty. There aren't a finite amount of assists/goals/penalty stats to be shared out amongst the team you know?
ReplyDeleteThe fact remains, Adam averages a goal or assist every 1.9 games accross his career, that figure is bettered in the early part of his Liverpool career. I can only see it improving while he plays in a 'better' team, irrespective of penalties.
I think you'll find it's just that we're 'a thick' (whatever that is!)
ReplyDeleteYour reply doesn't fit with site's comment policy. Ooops, I forgot you're a fascist tit who deletes posts on that basis when it suits you. How are your Chelsea, Man U & City blogs coming along? Scab! This is a plain, misery free article for you, well done! I guess you'll be back to your usual moaning shite in no time.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if it was on this site that I said it, JK may have been out of commission for a while, but Charlie Adam has been top of my wish list since last October. We are so lucky to have him
ReplyDeleteMy mate, who supports Leeds, was telling me to watch out for him as he had seen him the year before in Championship
The assists/goals stats are favourable alright, but Opta reflects it even better, Charlie Adam created as many goalscoring chances (64) as Luka Modric and Nani in 2010 / 2011 season
Henderson created 82!!! These are the real stats, assists requires that your team mate is good enough to finish the chance you have created
As an aside, last season Lucas Leiva made more tackles than any other player in the Premier League & completed 83% of his 1794 passes
This year he's top so far
Tacklers Team Tackles Success rate Lucas Leiva Liverpool 22 68% Faurlin QPR 16 75% Mulumbu WBA 16 75% Cabaye Newcastle 16 69% Cattermole Sunderland 15 93%
Christmas wish is an Opta subscription............. :) or if i win the lotto
"I have been using Opta’s services for many years to analyse both our own team performance and also player recruitment. The information Opta provide is accurate and easy to access"
Damien Comolli - Director of Football Strategy, Liverpool Football Club
I have said before that we have finally found the answer to the one player who was sold in order to bring in Barry. Selling Alonso one of the very bright spark ideas over the years...
ReplyDeleteCharlie Adam is our answer to Alonso, both creator of goals but Adam edges Alonso when it comes to scoring goals. Adam quite honestly will be the signing of the season, great thing is that he was not injured and did not cost an arm and a leg!!!
I like the stats let's hope all our new players are very successful. Whilst dome players will move on from this great club thanks for your service.
ReplyDeleteLike who? Andy Carroll?
ReplyDeleteLike who? Andy Carroll?
ReplyDeleteha jamie you still supportin liverpool thought you would be off supportin West Brom by now once Woy left.Think if the club listened to you we would be a championship team by now.the only "red" who couldnt see the damage he was doin and defended him to the last.id love to read some of them articles for the laugh and here you are back again to entertain!
ReplyDeleteYou're obviously not able to understand basic maths, so please keep on believing that Adam will have >10 league goals to his name this year and live happily ever after ...
ReplyDeleteJamie, i have disagreed with the vase majority of your views, but agree here. Charlie Adam is bringing what liverpool have been missing since Alonso was sold. Diagonal balls from the centre. This type of passing is so effective for spreading play and quickly initiating attacks. It is a route of attack which has been missing from our play since Alonso left. Only Gerrard was capable of such vision and passing accuracy since Alonso left, but he was rarely utilised in such a deep sitting role. Now that we have Adam, we will be scoring many more goals. Dalglish seems to be setting his team up very similarly to the way Benitez had liverpool playing in that special season where we finished 2nd. Adam for Alonso, Suarez for Torres, Lucas for Mascherano. Kuyt and Downing on the wings with Gerrard and Suarez up front and we will be beating teams for fun
ReplyDeleteI haven't once said Adam will score more than 10 goals for Liverpool, I've been purely talking about his past performances and whether those stats can be extrapolated to provide an indication of how he might perform for us this year.
ReplyDeleteAs you seem to think it's unreasonable to include penalties to indicate a players past performance contribution, what indicators can we use?
I'm a big fan of Adam but I get the feeling you're hyping him up because he's Scottish... just like you!!!
ReplyDeleteYou could be onto something there ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's true, I'm happy to see the Scottish influence rising at Liverpool again. Irrespective of his nationality though, Adam is clearly an excellent player.