With Liverpool seemingly getting ready to signing Milos Kerkez, we took a take a look at why he could possibly be the right long-term alternative for Andy Robertson.
With the assistance of our companions at FotMobwe take a deep look into Kerkez’s information and the way he compares to Robertson.
The place Milos Kerkez is as much as in his profession
Having already performed in Serbia, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Holland and England, Kerkez is comparatively skilled for a 21-year-old footballer.
After signing for Bournemouth in the summertime of 2023, he went straight into the staff underneath Andoni Iraola and began 22 Premier League matches in his first yr on the south coast.
Having registered two league assists in 2023/24, he went on to enhance his figures the next marketing campaign, organising six objectives and scoring twice as he began each single league match.
With Robertson slowly declining and Kostas Tsimikas clearly not a long-term choice as a first-choice Liverpool left-back, the Reds look to be turning to Kerkez as their most costly full-back buy by far.
Traits just like Andy Robertson
Whereas his numbers considerably dropped this season, with simply two assists in 45 appearances, Robertson has been a constant supply of chance-creation from the left since arriving in 2017.
In truth, since he signed for Liverpool, solely Trent Alexander-Arnold Son Heung-Min, Mo Salah and Kevin De Bruyne have arrange extra objectives within the Premier League.
Throughout the 2018/19 season, arguably Robertson’s finest, the Glaswegian created 1.43 probabilities per 90 minutes, managed 0.59 profitable crosses and had a 15.6 % cross accuracy.
Compared, Kerkez is already evaluating effectively in opposition to these numbers.
This season, the Hungarian had a 27.5 % crossing accuracy and put in 1.05 profitable crosses per sport, inserting him within the prime 20 % of comparable gamers within the final yr, in line with FotMob.
In the meantime, he created 0.97 probabilities per sport, down on Robertson’s 1.44 per match this season, but it surely have to be remembered that Kerkez is enjoying in an inferior, albeit thrilling, staff.
Carrying the ball
Kerkez having much less alternative than Robertson to reveal his attacking skills will be proven by him having 17 fewer touches per 90 and barely much less time within the field.
Regardless of this, Kerkez shone with the ball at his ft, making greater than twice as many profitable dribbles as Robertson and managing a 56.4 % dribble success fee, versus the 31-year-old’s 41.2 %.
What to work on
If there’s a weak point to Kerkez’s sport it’s in his defending, a typical problem for flying full-backs.
There have been instances at Bournemouth when his one-on-one defending was under par, however once you take a look at the statistics, he really fared higher than Robertson on this respect.
Kerkez was dribbled previous 0.38 instances per match on common, whereas Liverpool’s left-back was left behind 0.72 instances per 90 minutes.
In truth, even within the 2018/19 season, when Liverpool conceded simply 22 objectives, Robertson was dribbled previous 0.87 instances per match.
Whereas the stat is a fundamental one, it does a minimum of point out that Kerkez is ranging from level. Nonetheless, you do should keep in mind that Robertson would probably have been caught up the pitch extra incessantly.
This is because of Liverpool having extra of the ball in greater areas. On common, the Reds had 57.9 % possession (the second-most within the league) whereas Bournemouth ranked twelfth with 48.6 % of the ball.
* FotMob is an important app for each fan to maintain updated with their staff or comply with soccer worldwide, infinite stats and options supply all you can ever need and by no means knew you wanted!
You’ll be able to obtain the FotMob App right here.
