Liverpool football club are on a roll at the moment and manager Brendan Rodgers can be credited with much of their improved showing. Rodgers has made a lot of permutations and combinations with the team and that has helped Liverpool to take the opposition by surprise each time.
Rodgers has come a long way from trying with the 3-5-2 to the diamond formation and although the majority of the squad remained unchanged, Rodgers has certainly mixed it up with Coutinho and Sterling in second half of the season. While Sterling’s contribution to the game has been increasing with each passing game, Coutinho puts in an below par performance when something was expected from him.
Last week against United he played Sterling at the tip of the diamond and that bore results as Liverpool beat United 3-0 at the Old Trafford. He again shifted to Coutinho this week against Cardiff and brought Sterling in the later stages of the match.
While this is mainly a tactical move as each player has their own preferences, it looks like that he will continue to do this for the rest of the season. While Sterling loves the width and has more pace than his Brazilian counterpart, Coutinho is better in dribbles than Sterling and is a better finisher. We make a comparative study among the two youngsters based on their performance and determine whom will Rodgers opt for more in the upcoming matches.
This season is the first season full season for both the players in the club and it was presumed that they would let the world know of their class in this season. While Sterling made a strong impression at the beginning of the previous season, his impact reduced remarkably towards the end. Coutinho, on the other hand, joined Liverpool in January and impressed everyone. But it is first time that he is getting his full quota of matches in a red shirt and it is in no one’s surprise that he is making a good run of games.
Both of them have played 25 matches this season and their statistics look alike, making it extremely difficult for us to reach a verdict. But Sterling’s times have been a bit better as evident from the 6 goals that he has scored compared to Coutinho’s 3.
However, Coutinho has been effective elsewhere creating 45 chances and making 6 assists in total. With Suarez and Sturridge upfront, it is quite natural that the team would benefit from a midfielder with such statistics and Coutinho has exactly been the creative playmaker behind the attacking duo.
Sterling, on his part, has created 33 chances for his side, out of which 3 has been registered as assists. He is more of a winger with the knack of cutting in and taking on the defence himself. This gives Rodgers the versatility to try out two different moulds of players against different teams.
Both the players have been decent passers of the ball, doing it 80% of the times successfully. This has helped Liverpool to take a grip on the midfield against much better oppositions and implement Rodgers “death by football” policy.
Both of them are young talented players, with much scope to improvement and the Liverpool management and fans would only like to believe that they develop to be the pillars of the Liverpool midfield and guide the club to success for a long time to come.
Stats Via Squawka