Xherdan Shaqiri – Liverpool’s key creative force this season
Liverpool have made a near-perfect start to the season, winning 9 of the 12 games played, drawing the other three. The impressive thing about them so far has been the points they have taken from big away games.
Jurgen Klopp’s men struggled to get positive results in away games last season. However, they have gone away to Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal, and got five points out of a possible nine. This is surely a significant improvement made towards challenging Manchester City for the title.
The Reds spent a lot of money in the summer transfer window, especially to address the lingering issues in the team. One of them was Xherdan Shaqiri from a relegated Stoke City team for a price of just £13m. It has been a bargain buy for the club given the performance level of the Swiss international thus far.
Liverpool sold Phillipe Coutinho in January this year and then never replaced him. As a result, they struggled in games where the front three under-performed, just because the midfielders were too mono-stream in their approach.
But whenever Shaqiri has started, the Reds have looked a different side in terms of more creativity and inventiveness in the team. Here we analyse his performances this season and use some of the stats to back the facts up:
Stats Analysis – Xherdan Shaqiri
Xherdan Shaqiri has appeared in eight games so far, five from the bench. He has scored two goals, provided two assists and has a key pass rate of one per match. The 27-year-old possesses a pass success of over 80%, with over 25 passes per game.
The Swiss attempted 1.4 shots per game, which epitomises his hunger to work the opposition goalkeeper at every given opportunity.
Other than these numbers, his unpredictability on the ball means that the defenders are always on the guess. The good thing for the player is that he has willing runners like Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino running beyond the ball and breaking the defensive lines.
Liverpool might have failed to land Nabil Fekir in the summer, however, they have Shaqiri who can be the X-factor in the team. The Swiss international is no doubt showing his qualities whenever called upon by Jurgen Klopp.
If he continues to chip in with the goals and assists, the front three will have their workload shared, which is good for the longevity of the title challenge.
Stats Courtesy – Whoscored.com