Statistics Centre: Why Alonso Won't Be Missed

The Alonso transfer left a sour taste in the mouths of many Liverpool fans. There was the Barry Saga, followed by the Real Madrid chase, which culminated in a transfer request from Alonso.

It resulted in a fan favourite leaving and Benetiz being widely criticised by the Kop. However, the statistics seem to suggest that Benetiz was more than justified in cashing in the massive 30 million pound transfer.

Alonso was definitely a key player for Liverpool last season that dictated much of their play.

In fact, he proved to be a machine in central midfield outputting 0.74 passes per minute, which was far higher than either Mascherano (0.549 passes/min) or Lucas (0.502 passes/min). In certain games, he provided 19% output of the entire team, which is fairly amazing for one player

However, that is where the “brilliance” of Alonso stops.

If one was to analyse his defensive game, it proves to be lacking, even compared to the much maligned Lucas. Looking at the 2007/2008 season, Alonso only made 57% of his tackles, whilst making 0.0728 tackles/min.  This did not improve significantly in the 2008/09 season, with  61% of his tackles being accurate at a tackle rate of 0.068 tackles/min.

This is particularly unimpressive when considering that Lucas threw 0.11 tackles/min and had an accuracy rate of 66% in 2008/2009.

Furthermore, his ability to read opposition play could be questioned when looking at his inability to pick up interceptions. He had by far the lowest interception rate, picking up only 0.016 interceptions/min, whilst both Mascherano and Lucas picked up 0.036 and 0.026 interceptions/min respectively.

Though, one question will now remain:

Can anyone in the Liverpool team match the passing output of Alonso this season?

It is early days but Mascherano seems to have taken up Alonso’s mantle by producing a better 0.765 passes/min at 93% accuracy. This was most clearly seen at Stoke where he found a 100 passes, which is a feat that even Alonso did not match throughout 2008/09 or 2007/08.

Is Alonso worth 30 million? Certainly not.

Can Liverpool cope without him? It seems so but only time will tell.