Liverpool have shown the most intent to conduct early business this term as their efforts to rebuild the club has taken a major dent with the Suarez saga. Brendan Rodgers and Co have so far roped in Celta Vigo striker Iago Aspas, who will be joining Daniel Sturridge and Fabio Borini in the attacking department. But the question remains that who among these two players should be given the first opportunity to feature for the team? Or should Sturridge take the central role allowing Aspas to play from the right? We take a look at some of the statistics of both these players and try to come to a conclusion.
For starters, let us first say that while Sturridge featured in only 14 games for the Merseyside club, as he joined in January, Aspas was an integral part of the Celta Vigo team and was given 34 opportunities to shine on the field. While moving for Sturridge, Brendan Rodgers mentioned quite clearly that Sturridge was an out and out goalscorer and that was proven with the ten goals that he accumulated in this short span. Aspas, on the other hand, is much more of a creative player who can fill in the shoes of a striker if required. Thus the 12 goals that he scored for Vigo are quite good enough and do not undermine his acumen as a striker.
Referring to the above point, it should be mentioned that while Aspas created 69 chances for his side the previous season, Sturridge was only able to create 30. This goes on to show that Aspas definitely has a much wider presence in the midfield of the team, although if Sturridge spends more time on the pitch he may catch up to the Spaniard. Both the players have a shot accuracy of 57%, leaving nothing to choose for the manager although in pass accuracy the England International leads Aspas by 85% to 77%. (These stats are taken only from Sturridge’ Liverpool days, with Chelsea he played he played 7 league games with just a single goal to his name, so nothing much in it to learn)
The statistics of both the players may definitely give Rodgers some food for thought, but he would be hoping that rather than selecting one particular player, he makes them build a fruitful partnership and score tons of goals next season.
Leaving behind the stats, the main question to be asked here is about the formation Rodgers would consider using next season and whether Daniel Sturridge can play as the main striker. The former Chelsea striker, is not your classic centre forward or a target man, but Suarez wasn’t either. Sturridge is rather a mobile striker who can play decently anywhere in the final thrid and Rodgers could turn to Aspas to play in the middle as he has already done that with Celta and Coutinho can continue down the left. This does look a decent looking attacking setup and suits Brendan Rodgers philosophy of play. To be fair Rodgers has done well with what he has at Liverpool and in the next few years you’ll see Liverpool shapen up the way he wants it to. In midfield if rumoured to be signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan lands at Anfield, he along with the likes of Gerrard and Lucas Leiva could form a formidable line-up.
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