I am alone at home as usual and so I decided to do something rather geeky for me. I re-watched Tuesday's match and kept a record of every time we won possession from Stoke, when, where and how it happened. I won't bore you with the whole list but there are some general findings I found at least somewhat interesteing.
There 66 instances where Stoke had possession and we won the ball either through an interception of a pass, a steal (someone challenging for the ball and winning it away from the Stoke player) or causing a throw-in to us via defensive pressure. I incuded times when Migs caught a cross or collected an errant pass, but not when he saved a shot.
I list here the # of times a player won the ball, meaning he was the first LFC player to have actual possession, and the number of times he was involved in winning possession but wasn't the one gaining the ball (which could mean a deflection, a header or directly pressing the player giving away). I call these assists Obviously there are other defensive actions that can contribute to a turnover that are not necessarily recorded here. Here are my probably imprecise, but generally reliable, totals:
Migs - 7 wins, 0 assists
Clyne - 4 wins, 1 assist
Lovren - 4 wins, 7 assists
Klavan - 6 wins, 7 assists
Milner - 11 wins, 6 assists
Hendo - 5 wins, 7 assists
Gini - 7 wins, 2 assists
Lallana - 3 wins, 7 assists
Origi 3 wins, 3 assists
Firmino - 4 wins, 2 assists
Mane - 3 wins, 3 assists
Sturridge - 1 win, 0 assists (no prize for recalling what his one win led to)
Can - 2 wins, 0 assists
Moreno - 1 win, 2 assists
My chief takeaways from focusing on this as I rewatched:
1. Everyone in Klopp's 11 is involved in defending and winning the ball. No starting outfield players failed to have at least one win and one assist.
2. 50 of the 66 wins were in Liverpool's end of the park, with 8 others right around the midfield stripe.
3. Milner was a beast on Tuesday, but I also think this reflects that Stoke attacked our left more than our right (even though their goal came against our right).
4. As I would fast forward when we were had possession to get to the next ball win, it became clearer to me just how good this team is at keeping the ball. I'm not sure that has been highlighted much in light of our offense and pressing.
5. Compansionship beats being an Anorak, every time.
