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Liverpool’s midfield in comparison to Cardiff’s

The newly promoted Cardiff City FC are still adjusting to life in the Premier League, but are currently 4 points clear of the dreaded relegation zone. Let’s see how the Welsh club’s midfield stacks up with Liverpool’s.

Gerrard regains his top spot for total passes while Gary Medel sits second at 550, impressively his pass accuracy percentage is also the highest at 91.1%. Unfortunately Cardiff’s Peter Whittingham has the lowest passing accuracy of all the midfielders in this group at 76.1%. Gerrard and Lucas again have the highest average of passes per game with Medel breaking up the clean sweep for Liverpool averaging 3 more passes a game than Henderson. Again this one is a no brainer, with more passes attempted,  a higher passing accuracy %, and averaging more passes per game, Liverpool have the edge.

Cardiff duel wins vs Liverpool duel wins

Cardiff interceptions vs Liverpool interceptions

CARDIFFTACKLES

No surprise to see Lucas top all three defensive categories once again. Doing this post has made me realise just how much Lucas influences a match even though he may not be scoring goals or creating chances. Medel and Gunnarrson have better interceptions numbers than both Gerrard and Henderson, probably partly because Cardiff isn’t a team that will be dominate in possession and their midfielders are constantly trying to win the ball back. Liverpool again dominate in tackle wins, and have a slight edge in duel wins with Lucas and Henderson leading the way. Numbers don’t lie and I can say with confidence Liverpool have the better defensive midfield.

CARDIFFGOALS

Even though Liverpool’s midfield has only managed two goals and both of those belonging to Steven Gerrard, Cardiff’s midfield hasn’t done much more. Gerrard’s 25 chances created are ten better than Whittingham who tops the chart for Cardiff. Even if Cardiff hope to stay up this season they will have to find more production from their midfield. Easy enough to say that Liverpool’s midfield gets the edge again. In summary with Liverpool topping every category analysed it’s an easy pick to choose Liverpool’s midfield trio over Cardiff’s.

Cardiff chances created vs Liverpool chances created

Liverpool’s midfield in comparison to Chelsea’s

With the return of Jose Mourinho many picked Chelsea as title contenders, and why not “The Special One” won the league in back to back fashion in his first stint at the head of the London based club. Currently Chelsea are one point better than Liverpool in the league table, let’s see how their midfield stacks up against Liverpool’s.

Chelsea total passes vs Liverpool total passes

Total passing numbers are extremely tight between the two clubs, with every player attempting over 400 passes early on. Yet again though Captain Fantastic is atop of the group while Ramires  has the second highest amount. Those two players also top the average passes per game which shouldn’t be surprising. Liverpool’s trio does have a higher passing accuracy percentage at 87.7% vs Chelsea’s 84.4%. Even though it’s close I’m going to have to say Liverpool have the slight advantage in the passing game.

CHELSEAAPPG

As you’ve seen Lucas has had little competition in the tackles category. Ramires comes closest to dethroning Lucas from the top of the tackling graphic, but still falls nine tackle wins short of doing so. I found it surprising the Brazilian youngster Oscar has more successful tackles than his teammate Frank Lampard who makes up the bottom of the graph. Liverpool’s trio top Chelsea in interceptions, Ramires’s 8 is equal to Henderson, but not enough to make a dent in the advantage. I give Chelsea the slight advantage in duel wins with Gerrard seeing the bottom of the graph. Again these clubs are very tight, and Big Phil has a hard choice to make when selecting a defensive midfielder for the Brazilian national team for next years World Cup with Lucas and Ramires going first and second in two defensive categories.

Much like Arsenal, Chelsea see an advantage in goals scored and chances created. Oscar’s four goals are the main reason for the advantage. Lampard’s lone goal came from a beautiful free kick and should be expected to score more throughout the season. Much-like Lucas, Ramires will not be expected to score goals, but the fellow Brazilian has the same amount of chances created as Chelsea captain Lampard. All of the other categories have been fairly close but Chelsea easily takes this one. But it’s not enough for me to say Chelsea’s trio is better than Liverpool’s. With better passing and dominate defensive numbers, I will say Liverpool have the better midfield even though it could really go either way.

Brief Summary

So in summary, Liverpool’s midfield easily trump Aston Villa and Cardiff as most probably expected. While I’ve given the slight edge to Liverpool over Chelsea, the Arsenal trio have the edge over the trio from Merseyside. This is my first time really looking deep into stats to rank players, I tried to let the graphs do most of the explaining. My opinion is also a factor to consider, I’m sure there are plenty of you reading this that would give Liverpool the nod over Arsenal or even rate Chelsea’s midfield higher than Liverpool’s, everyone is entitled to their opinion I just chose to try and write mine down.

  1. Arsenal
  2. Liverpool
  3. Chelsea
  4. Aston Villa
  5. Cardiff
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