Anfield Index

The third, and final, instalment of our nostalgic look at the midfield trio of the 2008/2009 season will concentrate on their performance in the attacking third of the pitch. We'd expect Xabi Alonso to be ahead in the race for most creative central midfielder out of the three. Xabi's passing, whether it be a simple pass or a long ball, was always of the highest quality. We'll look at how much of his passing helped in creating chances for Liverpool FC in the season 2008/2009 and how his midfield partners did in comparison.

Liverpool are looking to boost their attacking lineup by adding two of the hottest talents on Spanish soil, Bojan Krkić and Sergio Canales. Canales warded off any attempts to get him on loan in January, but patience is running thin.'Its been a tough year', admits Canales. For someone who should be starting games at this age, he is waiting in the wings for his turn. With the wealth of talent in Madrid, it doesn't look like the attacking midfielder stands a chance of replacing Kaka or Ozil in the first team. Damien Comolli, now the Director of Football at Liverpool FC, rates him highly from his days at Racing Santander.

If there has been one criticism levelled at Andy Carroll more than any other since he burst onto the scene in 2008, it is that his aerial threat is where his ability begins and ends. As one disgruntled Geordie put it on Twitter, “That's his only trick though ....He's just a Geordie John Carew”....

“We’ve got the only Brazilian that can’t play football!” “It’s clear that he’s not going to make it.” “Not Liverpool class.” “We’re not going to win a title with him in the squad!” “Would he get into our rivals teams? No.” Are just some of the comments I’ve heard or read. Others can’t be written down…

Suarez and Carroll. Two signings, for the price of one (well, almost). For weeks, we have waited to see them play together. They have been talked up as the latest little and large combo, many of which we have seen over the years. Due to injury, and ineligability, we have been unable to see this partnership in all it's glory. But against Sunderland, we finally got to see them both, from the start.

It was late Thursday night, that the brilliant Tony Barrett, was reporting that Chelsea had made a bid, and we had rejected it. I was sat in work, with a copy of the Times printing another trusted article, while my colleagues had copies of The S*n, Daily Fail, and every other made up story going. I was brushing it under the carpet. We rejected Chelsea's bid, we move on, right? We have been in this situation before, haven't we?

In this instalment we're going to discuss tackling, possession duels, interceptions, blocks and fouls conceded or won. As you know this is going to fit right into Javier Mascherano's. You'd not expect this one to be close at all and expect Mascherano to be far and away the better tackler out of the three.

The first instalment of this feature was a success so we are going to make it into a regular feature every time Liverpool win in the Premier League. The latest game was yesterday's win at the Stadium of Light against, a struggling, Sunderland. Immediately after the game a lot of supporters, myself included, put the win down to a bit of lady luck that went our way after half an hour of the first half. On second thoughts I'd like to change my mind and put it down to a mixture of lady luck, which every team requires, and some very good performances in the Liverpool team.

Ive never written a blog before on anything, all I normally write are reviews for Hotels and Restaurants on trip Advisor and process documents for work.

A superb win for Liverpool FC, which totally hinged on the decision midway through the first half when Liverpool were awarded a penalty. The decision for the penalty was an incorrect one and this changed the whole game. However we are thankful for the decision especially after we've been on the wrong end of decisions in the past (See the unforgettable beach ball goal last year).

"We've got the best midfield in the world!" is what reverberated in Anfield and mainly on the Kop in the heights of Rafael Benitez's reign at Anfield. The song mentioned Xabi Alonso, Momo Sissoko, Gerrard and Mascheranoooooooooo! We loved that song, we loved that midfield quartet. Since then we've undergone a total transformation in midfield, no longer does it have the passing range of Alonso or the terrier like tackling of Mascherano or Sissoko.

Since Alonso's big money departure to join Spanish giants Real Madrid, we have never quite come to terms with his loss. Many actually believe this has caused our decline over the last few seasons.

This sunday, Liverpool go head to head to head with Steve Bruce (the manager) for the 16th time in the Premier League and the 20th time overall. Over the years it has been notoriously difficult for the reds to take all 3 points away from these games, in fact, it has only ever happened...

It's close to two weeks since the victory against Manchester United and we've, once again, done a full circle of emotion. Ecstasy of beating our rivals to dejection of crashing out of Europa. However we still think there are ten reasons to be positive:

Liverpool FC Vs SC Braga Our basic stats at half time are attached below for all to view. We'll add more context later but as we're providing these statistics on the go we cannot add any at the moment! Basic Stats from Braga (H) in Europa League   Player Stats

SamSports looks at Lucas Leiva's performances earlier this season, during the Roy Hodgson era. How has he done? Why should his performances be classed as impressive? Where can he improve? All those questions answered in this article.

A statistical look at Steven Gerrard's ups and downs over the last three Premier League seasons.

Last updated: 5th April 2011 Another update to this article for you all as it's received such good feedback. A week makes a massive difference in football and as you can see, from the stats below. Darren Bent has been the main beneficiary thanks to his two goals, against the bitter blues of Merseyside, this weekend. He further improved his stats because the two goals were his only shots in the game therefore improving his accuracy as well as minutes per goal ratio.

Part One of a detailed look at the depth of young talent at Liverpool FC, initially looking at Goalkeepers & Defenders.

The Under-18’s prepared for their FA Youth Cup showdown with Manchester United in the best possible way, coming back from a goal down to hit Blackburn for five.

After weeks of development the first version of the Stats Centre is now live! Please view the stats by clicking the "Stats" menu item on the top right hand side of the screen. We hope this section of the site provides you with what you're looking for

All of the stats from last night's game are attached below. The passing breakdown displays forward, backward, left and right passes. We have also included the passing zones for the whole team and then individual players also. We are running short on time at the moment so will display the stats for you but add some context later in the day.

Liverpool went down to a 1-0 loss in Portugal earlier this evening. a penalty conceded by Soto Kyrgiakos decided the game in the first half. A lacklustre performance really and it's quite surprising that our pass total was quite high once again. We made around 582 passes and it seems to me that we always seem to pass the ball when we are losing and chasing the game (I guess it's obvious really). I've displayed the basic match stats below for your viewing pleasure. Please log in and comment on the stats.

SC Braga Vs Liverpool FC - 1st Half Stats Possession: Liverpool: 53.1% Pass Completion: 77% Passing Stats Total Passes: 281 Open Play: 259 Crosses: 7 Throw Ins: 12 Goal kicks: 3 Total Accurate Passes: Accurate Passes: 217 Open Play: 206 Crosses: 1 Throw Ins: 8 Goal kicks: 2 Total Pass Zones Defensive Half Passes: 158 Attacking Half Passes: 108 Total Accurate Passes in Zones Defensive Half Passes: 141 Defensive Half Completion %: 89.2% Attacking Half Passes:...

Make sure you come back later this evening for stats on our Europa League match Braga Vs Liverpool in Portugal. We'll be doing a report available for all with basic stats and a report available for subscribers only with more detailed stats on the player performances. Please joins later in the evening (won't be immediately...

Jamie Carragher is a player who needs no introduction. In his lengthy career there is only one trophy that has eluded him; he has racked up over 650 appearances for the club often playing more than 50 games a season. He has made 137 European appearances for Liverpool (as of 24/02/2011) which is a British record. Never one to shy away from a challenge or quietly go about his business, in fact there is barely a match that goes by when you can’t hear him barking out orders to his team mates even when playing to an audience of tens of thousands, he has come in for criticism, been labelled not good enough an overlooked for England but has still remained a first choice defender for Liverpool for over a decade. But now in his 33rd year as he approaches the final stages of his 15th campaign he is finding himself under the microscope more and more often. So what do the stats actually say about Jamie? Is he overrated or underrated, wrongly or rightly overlooked?

A brief introduction: I’m Conor Dowley, and while I’m a Yank through and through, I’m also a huge Liverpool supporter. My best friend grew up just blocks from Anfield, so when I started getting more and more in to the sport and it came time to choose a team to support (five years or so ago), Liverpool was the natural choice. It helped that I loved watching them play; Steven Gerrard was then and is still now one of my favorite individual players to watch.

We're pleased to announce that anfieldindex.com has agreed a deal with Opta Sports Data to provide detailed match statistics on Liverpool Football Club's Europa League adventure. We understand that there is a risk as it is now the knock out stages however we wanted to prove our passion and commitment to members of anfieldindex.com that we're continually looking to improve and ensure you get your money's worth.

The performance by Luis Suarez yesterday is summed up by the fact that his team-mate scored a hat-trick and he still walked off the pitch as the man-of-the-match by a comfortable margin.

Following on from our previous post with regards to match stats we thought we'd post some in depth breakdown on the passes made by each of the players that made the majority of the match. The passes are broken down in to forward, backward, left and right passes. Hopefully you'll be able to find some sort of correlation. However the obvious things you may notice are things like defenders passing a higher proportion forward and strikers laying off passes backwards a lot more.