5 Sept 2013

Not good enough: Aldo slates LFC's 'worst passing performance' under BR. Problem...?

Liverpool fans are still basking in the glow of Sunday's fantastic 1-0 win over Manchester United, a victory that propelled the Reds to the top of the Premier League table, and condemned United to their worst start in five years. Defensively, the players did really well, but Anfield legend John Aldridge believes that the team's passing - a priority under Brendan Rodgers - suffered.

In his column today, Aldo hailed the fact that Liverpool are winning games without playing well, but argued that the passing against Man United left a lot to be desired. He told the Liverpool Echo:

"We haven’t played anywhere near our best football yet, and I actually thought Sunday was probably our worst passing performance under Brendan Rodgers. We didn’t keep the ball hardly at all in the second half"

The game stats seems to back up Aldo's assertion that Liverpool's passing suffered against Man United:

* Passing accuracy (PA): 76% (Man Utd = 82%)
* PA in opposition half: 69%
* Average Prem PA last season: 84%
* Average Prem PA this season: 81%

* PA vs. Aston Villa: 84%
* PA vs. Stoke City: 82%

The worst game for passing accuracy last season was the 2-2 draw with Everton:

* Everton 2-2 (a): PA = 76%. PA opposition half = 62%

STATS: Opta

As the stats above show, Liverpool are operating at a level below last season's overall 84% average at the moment, but it's only 3 games into the season, and that figure will no doubt improve as the season wears on.

Passing has generally suffered in the second half of games this season, and this occurred again in the Man United match. Why is this happening? Some possibilities:

* The pressure of defending a lead is getting to the team. The players are so desperate not to lose that they become nervous in possession, which leads to passes going astray.

* Playing too deep, which invites more pressure onto the players in possession.

* Too slow in possession/holding onto the ball too long (Lucas is a major offender here), thereby being forced into errors.

* Tiredness? Did LFC's 120 midweek minutes against Notts County have an impact?

Man United passed the ball much better than LFC, and on another day, passing errors committed during the game could've been costly. For example, at one point in the second half, a misplaced Gerrard pass led to a dangerous Man Utd counter-attack, but luckily, it went nowhere.

Ultimately, passing accuracy isn't a major concern whilst Liverpool are winning games, but 1-0 margins are not going to cut it for the whole season, and at some point, failure to pass consistently well may lead to problems for the team.

Passing Accuracy: Top 5 this season

* Kolo Toure: 87%
* Steven Gerrard: 86%
* Lucas: 86%
* Jordan Henderson: 85%
* Daniel Agger: 84%

Passing Accuracy: Worst offenders

* Joe Allen: 42%
* Philipe Coutinho: 75%
* Daniel Sturridge: 75%



NOTE: Please stick to the Comment Policy (Click to read)


55 comments:

  1. Games against the big teams (and also Everton) are always less clean and more high tempo. Funny to see Man U actually did better than us because on MOTD they highlighted how sloppy THEIR passing was. You'll always get worse figures for attackers simply because there are more opposition players trying to get the ball. I don't think we need to look for difficult answers, it'll probably be higher again against Swansea.

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  2. Agree here, the top 5 passers you have there are all the deepest players in the liverpool squad, you could argue that although coutinho and sturridge have the low percentage passing rates they are looking more for the cutting edge/final ball which will contribute to these findings, toure and aggers passing most of the time will be sideways along the back 4. Going back to what Eric has said there will be less pressure and more space, we will find our passing to be alot higher against swansea.

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  3. Allens figures look terrible well the Welsh Xavi had better start fixing those figures but overall i have been happy.
    It is actually not a bad thing to be winning when not at your best look out when they hit their straps.

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  4. Frankly I'm not complaining as stats dont win games.
    How many times last season did we batter teams with with possession only to lose games?
    Winning UGLY is going to be important this season and that's what we did.
    Last season we didn't do well against the so called top four.

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  5. Cant take Allens figures seriously he has only played a couple of minutes this season (under severe pressure trying to protect a lead and with liverpool siting extremely deep) which meant he could not settle into the pace of the game , and was happy to just clear the ball and hope it found a teammate. It does however indicate that Allen is not the best option when trying to control the pace of the game which is worrying because that is suppose to be his strength.

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  6. Its no surprise that, based on your stats, the best passers are typically the deeper lying players that are afforded much more time on the ball and those that are afforded less time on the ball and that are trying to make passes that really hurt the opposition like Coutinho and Sturride are in the worst offenders list.
    Interesting to see Allen in the worst offenders list though as I am still not convinced with him. He seems to have difficulty with the ball at his feet and just does not look comfortable any time I see him play. Hopefully he will improve and become the player that BR sees in him but only time will tell.

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  7. I can understand us going counter attack mode in the second half but we didn't execute it well. But it didn't matter much, as Man United were too slow with their passing and too static with their movement. Glad we got the win but against opponents who have their act together, got to do better if we are going to play on the counter.

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  8. correct winning ugly or when not playing well is a sign of champions, if you watched chelski v manure it was a game not descript played as if a draw was better ...3 games 3 wins no goals conceded how can you complain? not you septimus :)

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  9. Interesting. You can certainly see the passing hasn't been as crisp and accurate this year as it was last year, although for 30 minutes against Aston Villa we passed the ball beautifully, our build up play was very quick and accurate. Great to see. But 3 wins we will take. The problem for me is Mignolet...he is a great shot stopper but very poor at passing out. And our system starts from him. On Sunday he hit loads of long balls, and with a short front 3 we lost aerial duels and United were able to get ball back and put pressure back on us. Mignolet is a GREAT shot stopper but if he wants to fit in our system he going to have to improve with his feet. And fast.

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  10. He must have some encouraging confidence with his feet, considering his footwork in sucking in Welbeck with that sort of Cruyff turn. Distribution not up to scratch yet but hoping the confidence is there with his feet to improve on it.

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  11. What the hell has happened to Joe Allen?
    Passing was his forte. (90% accuracy with Swansea. Buck up or ship out, £15m or no £15m.
    I dislike the way we are stopping dominating teams like we do in the first half, and retreat into a submissive approach- inviting teams to take the initiative. Even against Notts County we did that. Dominate teams for 70+ minutes, make the game safe, THEN close it out...

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  12. The opposite of Reina.
    But I know which I'd rather have if I had to chose between saves and distribution...

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  13. What matters most in football is winning and once we are winning now there is no cause for alarm. Last season, the team achieved a lot of passing accuracy but what happened? Do we want to achieve passing accuracy and lose at the end or achieve low accuracy and continue winning? As long as we are not losing, low PA should not be a bother at all.

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  14. " holding on the ball to long (Lucas is a major offender here ) " Where did you draw that conclusion Jamie ? If anything Lucas is just sitting , breaking up the play and looking to release the ball as quick as possible , he does not run/dribble or look for pinpoint through balls for attackers. So I fail to see your argument there . Other than that really enjoyed this and glad your focusing fully on footballing issues and tactics , keep it up mate.

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  15. I totally agree with you. That's where Pepe Reina excels, he is one of the best keepers in the world with his feet. Mignolet does not have that skill.
    Whenever he kicks the ball long we tend to lose possesion. Something which will have to be rectified.

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  16. Hopefully. Whenever he dwells on the ball to long I get a little nervous. When he pulled that little stunt on Sunday I nearly died.

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  17. That is also true Rukus! We got bullied last season. We will improve, trust me.

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  18. Very interesting comment Kreston, I agree. Then who would we chose?

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  19. Against Man United, Lucas gave the ball away in dangerous areas four separate times (and I highlighted this in a previous article)

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  20. Totally agree! All good teams are hard to best and win ugly! Most premiership teams win ugly! They also win playing beautiful football, but seasons are won when you don't play at your best!

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  21. Too be honest, until we get a better defensive midfielder than lucas we will continue to give balls away deep in our own half. Not only does he gets pushed off the ball too easily but also gives away needless freekicks in dangerous areas. As a result Gerrard's having to play deeper to help out. Its draining our resources as we all know gerrard needs to be higher up the pitch. We need a roy keane/essein type player in that position, maybe someone who is young and developing. Ideally an established world class player would be good in that position but may refuse coming to liverpool until we qualify for champs lge.

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  22. Unnecessary negtiveness won't improve our passing accuracy....

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  23. Well we really don't have any options. Hendo has amazing work rate and gets himself into good areas , has decant technique but does not have much composure on the ball , he always seems rushed and can definitely not control the game ( he must still be in the starting 11 for his other qualities though. ) our new signing alberto is very raw but does seem like he has everything required if we can nature him properly. Stevie is trying really hard but it simple is not in his nature to play patient tiki-taka , his always been way to dynamic , searching for those Hollywood balls. In early posts I said our transfer priority should be to bring in Nemanja Matic from benfica this guy will do everything lucas/allen does and more .. he does not loose the ball , he breaks up everything, a bully in the air , extremly strong and can burst forward and start attacks. Some gems in the Portuguese league

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  24. Unecessary negativeness won't increase our passing accuracy...

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  25. The form we've shown is the complete opposite to what happened early on last season.We played good football and picked up draws and losses last season.Now our dominant style has deserted us and we're showing another important side to our game.The ability to grind out wins.
    The comparison that gets brought up the most whether it be on TalkSPORT or Sky Sports is who's better DANIEL STURRIDGE or DANNY WELBECK.DW has won on every poll between the two which baffles me because I have DS the clear winner.
    I try to judge as fair as possible.DS scored 11 in 21 games and had 5 assists last season.DW got 1 goal in 27 PL matches with 4 assists and that alone should terminate the conversation.He plays slightly deeper than STURRIDGE and statistics don't always tell the whole story but the facts are DW's production is rubbish.

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  26. Agree! Possibly last year's stats are inflated by Joe Allen making about a million short, meaningless passes...usually backward...and about a million passes back to Reina for no apparent reason at all.

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  27. Last season Rodgers made the team pass the ball quite brilliantly and showed that he could get the team to play some really great attacking football.



    It seems to me that this season Rodgers is now concentrating on defending.


    Nothing wrong with that as in his third season the team will be able to perfect his style of play and there will be a perfect balance between defend and attack..


    All Rodgers is doing is taking it step by step and showing that he is tactically astute.

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  28. So you supporting your argument on the basis of one performance ? our general ball retention was poor against Man Utd , it would be extremely unjust to single out Lucas as we were under constant pressure and there was no real movement ,hence the delay from Lucas to find a pass. In general Lucas is extremely tidy on the ball and hardly ever gives it away , so once again I fail to see your argument and one performance can not swing an argument into your direction , seeing that you a man of stats why not check up Lucas stats from Daglish era until present and compare his passing , dispossession stats to the rest of the squad and I'm sure you will notice he does not " hold on the ball to long " as you say.

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  29. One of the common criticisms of Allen is that he passes backwards too often, but his percentage of backwards passes in 2012-2013 was only 11.93% – less than Jordan Henderson (19%), Steven Gerrard (15%) and Moussa Dembele (17%). Michael Carrick had the lowest percentage in the league for a midfielder on just 7.97%, and Mikel Arteta – who is widely considered an excellent passer of the ball – was near enough level with Allen on 11.64%.



    Source: EPL Index

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  30. Another Allen myth says he can only pass the ball short. Again, this is a misconception. His long pass success rate last season was the second best in the league at 89.66%, so playing with Allen in midfield doesn’t stop us from breaking quickly when it’s on, or mixing the passing up from time to time.

    Source: EPL Index

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  31. Lucas does tend to give away cheap freekicks and he does not boss the midfield like a essien use to . However he is very tidy with the ball and I don't ever see him get pushed off the ball like you suggest . The player we require is Nemanja Matic ! I have lost count how many times i have mentioned this .

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  32. stats stats and more stats ,i do not care if our passing stats are going down ,i do not care at all the only stats that matter ,are 3 games 9points that will do fine

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  33. Sturridge is not that great of a passer because he wants to shoot all the time. While that IS what a strikers job calls for, there have been several times where he is just surrounded or the pass to him didn't leave him a clean, effective shooting position. He should give back a pass when that happens rather than getting off a weak shot or no shot at all.

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  34. as brucie says what do points make prizes ....what do stats do ...give a train spotter a job

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  35. If you read my article properly, you wouldn't misunderstand it so much. The article is about the Man United game, so obviously, my Lucas example is about...the Man United game. It is not a general comment about Lucas' ability, and you are trying to twist my view into something different.

    Lucas has given the ball away many times in the first three league games of this season. You're just going to have to deal with it.

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  36. I am not putting a spin on anything , you completely ignored my argument .. I merely stated that it is unjust to single out Lucas for liverpools poor passing display against Man utd .. I have no idea what other article you are referring to . I simply responded on how you specifically put lucas in brackets stating that he holds on the ball to long and gets dispossessed . This seems more like a general view from of lucas ability if you asked me and I definitely never said it was your direct view .. as you can see it was an initial question .. you once again say lucas has given away the ball many times in the first three games , again unjust to lucas .. as our whole squad has been poor with ball retention and lucas actually has one of the highest passing accuracies, disproving your theory ."sorry , but that's the truth even if you don't like it " was your statement .. it has nothing to do what I like or dislike really , its the mere fact you portraying something as true when it clearly is not .

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  37. I'm not wasting any further time on this pedantry. You've completely missed the point, and you've gone off on a tangent that has nothing to do with what I'm arguing. It's very simple:

    * The article is about the Man Utd game.

    * I questioned why LFC's passing was going awry in the second half of games.

    * I used Lucas as an example because he gave the ball away many times against Man Utd.

    You've taken it as some kind of generalised attack on Lucas, which is totally (and obviously) incorrect.

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  38. Once again you completely ignored my argument and you failed to grasp my point and have I not missed anything , you are repeating statements I have countered already and its not my fault you fail to understand it . You say I cant handle criticism of lucas , when I have been crying out for Nemanja Matic to be bought to replace lucas regularly on this site . that just shows how you have completely missed the point and proves how irrelevant your statements are . I am merely stating its unjust to specifically attach lucas to liverpools poor passing display against man u.. hopefully you can see the point now !

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  39. And likewise in the second half against Villa, he was caught dwelling on the ball too often, hence losing possession.

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  40. Did you not watch the second half against Villa? Lucas holding onto the ball too long was very apparent.

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  41. We were collectively shocking in the second half as a team no one could keep the ball and everyone was easily dispossessed which is my point , its unjust to single out lucas .. both Stevie and lucas were poor and lost possession numerous times in the second half at villa. Our argument revolves about the Utd game anyway.

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  42. If you can't handle the debate then why bother do all this work??? Personally I think you are been condescending towards your readers.

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  43. I completely agree! DW is a good player at his secondary role as Jaimie likes to say but when it comes to his primary role he isn't as great a people make him out to be. For him to be regularly called up to the England squad with such a poor return for a striker is unbelievable. I couldn't believe it when he was nominated for PFA Young player of the Year! There were so many much more deserving than DW for example Jordan Henderson. Not being biased or anything but he scored more goals, got more assists and created more chances than Wilshire and Cleverley. Englands two apparent new golden boys yet Henderson is considered shit because no fault of his own Liverpool spent £16m on him. I got into an argument with a United fan abut this and he said DW was nominated because he was one of the most consistent. What!? Consistently mediocre! He also used the same reasoning why Rio Ferdinand got into the PFA Team of the Year. The whole PFA awards is a farce in my eyes. Ryan Giggs winning it a few years ago proves that. He was brilliant in his prime but when he won it he played something like 15 games? How does that make him "Player of the YEAR" I could go on a slate near enough that whole PFA Team of the Year but I won't. Unless you want reasoning why not the players I will list now.
    David De Gea
    Rio Ferdinand
    Michael Carrick
    Pablo Zabaleta (Just didn't think he was the best right back)
    Not as big as I thought but seriously Van Persie is overrated and his newly release FIFA 14 stats prove that.

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  44. TOM CLEVERLEY is another average player as you stated.I think the media and some fans fall into the trap of thinking everything to do with MAN U is the best you can get.
    Not every part of a Lamborghini engine is top notch.Some parts just make the whole thing function smoothly they're not necessarily great individual pieces.I don't think RVP is overrated but he did go through a long dry spell last season that got overlooked by many!

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  45. Agree with most of that. I think in the second half against Villa and for the whole game against United we seemed to fall quite a bit deeper and lost that quick passing game in the middle of the park. I think it's a combination of lots of things. Yes, the pressure holding a lead against United, at home, when you're looking for a perfect start to the season is going to get to players. Call it nerves or a conservative approach to the game, it's all the same. We simply didn't seem willing to play the way we did against Stoke against a pressing United attack. We pumped more long balls and didn't hold posession as well in attack. I didn't see the same kind of patience against United that we showed against Stoke and that often is an issue of confidence.
    We can't really afford to play like that the whole season BUT ... we got the result and defended brilliantly. For the most part our poor passing and lack of posession didn't hurt us. United looked fairly feeble against our formation and we showed that we can grind out a win by protecting a lead against a quality team. Sometimes that's what you have to do, and it's nice to have that kind of result in the bank. We didn't play that well but we won the game and got the three points. It means that when we go into games and things don't seem to go well we can be confident that teams won't tear us apart and maybe we can snatch a win when we're not at our best. That's how you win the league.
    And we WILL get better. Suarez coming back means more than just a quality scorer in the attacking third. He's got the strength to hold balls up, wins free kicks, makes good passes to team mates and he'll play wide to free up Coutinho to move more centrally. That will improve Countinho's ball retention. Moses on the other flank will also help us because his pace and ability to beat players with the dribble means defenders will have to pay attention and potentially earn free kicks in dangerous positions. That means all our quality attacking players getting one-on-one with defenders in advanced positions. This will all contribute to much better strength and depth across the front line which will mean those two worst passing stats: Sturridge and Coutinho, will improve.

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  46. Good to see. I think the negative press on Allen from fans is mostly just made up, I don't understand it. The way he plays is important to Liverpool but he's ultimately had a dip in form and confidence that's put him in a challenging position. He can't get game time to just work himself into form and he's not going to push Gerrard or Lucas out of the side. I'm also just waiting for Henderson to start scoring a few goals which will make Allen a clear 4th choice. I suspect it will be an injury that will be needed to give Allen a run in the first team and I fully expect him to take advantage of it.

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  47. Even though it is early days, yet it seems Mignolet is the better keeper

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  48. Dead right he will be up for sale by January if he doesnt show a bit.

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  49. No Alberto will never play deep though m8 he is more of an attacking option.
    With time Henderson is a possibility to play deep as he has a great work rate only a bit of composure needed and that may come.

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  50. I never suggested that alberto would play deep , I merely stated he has the ability to dictate the pass of the game with his technique .. I am quite familiar that he is an attacking option , that being said at 20 years of age its difficult to say in what direction he will be moulded into , could be competition for Phil or maybe we can try to develop him into a xabi role ? Only time will tell. I agree with your Henderson point. Maybe when stevie retires hendo will be ready to slot right in there.

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  51. Agreed . Never approved of this signing from day one , he surprised me last year in the first two months or so but after that he has been poor.. people suggest he was played out of position and that he should play further up ( his shocking in attacking areas for me ). I will give the lad time though , and support him until he comes good. I will definitely not defend his poor performances like some people do. Dembele was a far better option at the time for the same price and superior in most departments.

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  52. FDTOM, Thats Uncle Rukus (no relations)..

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  53. You know you're in good company when others watch the Boondocks

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  54. this is the thing which left me bald after the game, especially the second half. we could not string 5 f**king passes together, and I was convinced that Utd as a result would nick a goal or two. Apart from the end with the counter attack and Sterling's goal attempt, we never looked like scoring.

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  55. I like that analogy, I may use that. So many average English players are supporting foreign quality in the tops teams while a lot of good English players get overlooked as they are at inferior side which i think England are slowly starting to realise this.


    With RVP don't get me wrong at what his primary role is, he is brilliant. Probably one of the best in the world at shooting however for me that's all he does. Yes he can get a few assists but so does every other striker. For me he doesn't really offer anything else. He doesn't really defend and only kicks into action when United are on an attack but as I said his FIFA 14 stats overate him. His work ethic is Attack:High Defend:High. For me his defence work rate should be low. He is rated 89 while Suarez is 86. I do not think for a second there is that much difference between the two of them but as you said everything to do with United is portrayed as amazing!

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