Joe Allen. He is appreciated by some for his short passes, movement and tactical awareness. For others, he was a massive waste of money and doesn’t actually do anything of use. I don’t think Marmite has the same effect on opinion as Joe Allen does. I will admit that I am a Joe Allen fan. I’m not going to tell those who do not agree with me that they’re wrong, they are more than entitled to their opinion. All I will do is investigate some statistical facts about Joe Allen’s first season at Liverpool.
As with all statistical analysis, it is key to mention anything that could appear to make the statistics look better/worse than they are. Therefore it is key to mention Joe’s shoulder injury, which he carried for some time from around November. For this, before I do some myth busting, I will look at the general stats of Allen’s season.
Joe Allen started 21 games and came on as a sub nine times, winning 65% of his tackles and winning a tackle every 36 minutes. He also made 50 interceptions. It is important to note here as I did in my previous analysis of Lucas; Joe Allen is not a defensive midfielder. He’d be best described as a ‘pivot midfielder’. For those of you who aren’t aware what I mean; he receives the ball from the back (defensive unit) and pivots and moves the ball forward. That is his role. He’s not particularly quick, nor will he put the ball in the back of the net from 30 yards. He gets the ball and moves it along and then he’ll move, receive the pass, and move it along. Tick-tock-tick-tock…. the ball keeps moving.
Now, I want a control for this analysis. Although, it is a different team I believe it can be of statistical use. Joe Allen in the 2011/12 season for Swansea; made 31 starts with 5 appearances of the bench. He won 76% of his tackles and also made 76 interceptions, much higher than his first season at Liverpool. I believe a shoulder injury and some form dips did affect him in his first Liverpool season, these stats show that he is more than adept at the defensive side of the game.
Over the last few days, I’ve asked for some Joe Allen ‘myths’ on Twitter, in an attempt to clear up the arguments used to criticise the player. I will now use the stats to do some myth busting.
Myth 1: “Joe Allen has never sent a pass straight forward towards (the correct goal).” From @pederkbs
Now then, I presume Peder is referring to a common myth that Joe Allen only passes backwards. So, I’ve investigated.
Last season, Joe Allen passed the ball 1396 times, with 1252 passes being successful. This is a pass success percentage of 90%, making 0.73 passes per minute of a match. Impressive. Of the 90% of the passes that were completed, 24% went to the left side of the pitch, 34% were moved to the right (Gerrard most common receiver of these passes), 31% were passed forward and 12% were passed backwards. So, the myth that Joe Allen passes backwards and rarely forwards is incorrect. Most commonly, he passes to his right or forward.
Looking at our control, his last season at Swansea; he made 2177 passes with 1985 of them being successful. A pass success percentage of 91% and of those 91% successful passes; 29% went forward, 21% went backwards, 18% went to the left and 30% went to the right. So Joe Allen actually passes forward more for Liverpool than he did at Swansea.
MYTH BUSTED.
Myth 2: I’m wording this one myself as multitude of different tweets came in with a similar point: Joe Allen never gets forward.
Firstly, lets look at where Joe Allen wins possession when he receives the ball, intercepts or makes a tackle. 71 times in Liverpool’s defensive third. 103 times in the middle of the pitch, with just 10 times in the attacking third. Not looking good in terms of myth busting this one.
His stats on the ball for going forward; 85% success rate for ‘attacking zone’ passes, that’s 570/672 and in the final third, Joe has an 81% pass success with 254/312 passes going to their man. Now, in his season for Liverpool, Joe Allen was not ‘credited’ with an assist. To be credited with an assist, you must be the last man to touch the ball before a goal-scoring event. Although Joe Allen was involved in 21 chance/goal creations, being involved in a chance/goal every 91 minutes. He made one clear-cut chance, hence making one clear cut chance every 1,919 minutes.
Compare this to his Swansea stats where Joe was credited with an assist twice and was involved in chance/goal creation 46 times with an involvement in a chance/goal every 63 minutes.
So in reality, there is evidence to show that Joe Allen does go forward. Although, what he does up the pitch is link up play, one-two passes but also he recycles. Recyclers aren’t appreciated enough in my opinion. Recyclers are players who hang slightly back on attacks, so if a route is shut then they can easily come in, offer a pass and attempt to attack down another route or switch wings. They’re key to the philosophy that Brendan wants at Liverpool. We attack, if it doesn’t work, we keep the ball. Recyclers can hang back but can also compliment attacks. Jordan Henderson is a recycler, but he does move forward much more than Joe Allen.
For me, I believe that Joe Allen myth about not going forward has been busted. For some, they may not. So we’ll leave that as a myth that has been cracked but needs further evidence to prove it’s bustworthiness.
MYTH 3: “The moment Joe Allen comes on the field, Liverpool immediately go ultra negative and stop going forward.” from @Tomehoban.
As stated earlier, Joe Allen came off the bench nine times for Liverpool last season. Sadly for this one, my control statistics (Allen at Swansea) aren’t particularly useful, although I may be able to find use for them. Did Swansea become defensive/negative when Allen was on the pitch?
With Allen on the pitch, Liverpool won 17 games, drew 7 and lost 10. For 4 of those defeats, he came on a substitute. In the games that Allen played in, Liverpool scored a total of 67 goals, at 1.97 goals per game. Defensively, Liverpool conceded a total of 39 goals, at 1.15 goals per game. So with Allen on the pitch, the result is 1.97-1.15. I don’t particularly see how that is Liverpool becoming negative, especially when our goals per game average for the season was 1.86 per game, with 1.13 conceded per game. Would those stats suggest that Liverpool become negative with Allen on the pitch? I believe not.
For me, MYTH BUSTED.
It is interesting how some Liverpool fans have found these myths about Joe Allen. Statistically, many of them sent to me didn’t stand up. I could have included more but I thought that these myths covered broad areas of criticisms for Joe Allen that I believed should be addressed and busted. Many of those fans that criticise Allen do so through a belief that he should be another type of player, a player like Steven Gerrard. Some simply do not understand what his role is in the Liverpool team. Do I believe that everything Joe Allen touches turns to gold? No. Do I think we got the most out of him last season? No.
In my opinion, Joe Allen functions well in a 4-3-3. I’m not as convinced about him in a 4-2-3-1, when one of the midfielders must be a holding midfielder. This position will always belong to Lucas; meaning Allen is vying for Gerrard’s place, which is something he won’t win. If we aren’t playing 4-3-3 then look on the bright-side, we have a good midfielder who is young, intelligent and also understands the system. He’s a good player to bring in and rotate the squad if nothing else. If you believe other players should be ahead of him in the pecking order, then that is fine but don’t believe the myths that surround a player that some don’t understand.
Joe Allen is a player that will always divide fan opinion, hopefully this article will go some way to dispelling some of the myths that surround him.
The statistics used in this article come from EPL Index and Soccerbase.com
