Liverpool Analysis: Why Araújo Is Worth the Risk, Mbaye Looks a Must and Midfield Balance Worries Me
Three key areas of Iraola’s Liverpool analysed through the numbers, with very different conclusions emerging.
There are three areas of this Liverpool squad that I find particularly interesting as we head towards the new season. Ronald Araújo has arrived on loan from Barcelona, Ibrahim Mbaye is a young winger I would absolutely like Liverpool to sign, and the possible midfield combination of Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz raises some genuine questions.
None of those discussions is particularly straightforward.
Araújo has barely played enough football over the past two years to make completely confident predictions. Mbaye is only 18 and has played fewer than 1,000 senior minutes. Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Wirtz are all extremely talented footballers.
The numbers, however, give us something tangible to work with.
Ronald Araújo Offers Liverpool Plenty of Upside
Araújo is a difficult player to assess because the first caveat is his lack of football over the past couple of seasons. Whatever anybody thinks of him as Barcelona captain or as a player, he has not accumulated the minutes you would ideally want when analysing somebody.
Physically, though, there is plenty there.
At 192 centimetres, he brings the sort of stature I always want to see in a centre half. His defensive metrics also show a player who, when at his best, can be extremely dominant.
His aerial duels ranked in the 97th percentile, his ground duels in the 95th percentile and his aerial duels won in the 90th percentile. His overall defending was also around the 96th percentile.
Those are very strong numbers. As the above image suggests, he is above average in aerial duels.
Some metrics are considerably lower, including box clearances, but context matters. Araújo has been playing for Barcelona, a side expected to have large amounts of possession. He therefore gets fewer opportunities to perform certain defensive actions.
