Who do you think is Liverpool’s fastest player? The availability of football statistics has never been greater but physical data on distance covered, sprints and the like remain largely under wraps.
The Premier League revealed last month that Micky van de Ven had clocked the fastest time since the start of the 2020/21 season. The Tottenham defender hit a top speed of 37.38 kilometers per hour against Brentford in January, dethroning Manchester City full-back Kyle Walker from the top spot.
The Reds hold fifth place in the standings, Dominik Szoboszlai hitting a speed of 36.76 km/h at Molineux in September. But speed in football can be measured in different ways. We often talk about a player being quick off the mark or fast over longer distances. In terms of the former, Liverpool’s leading man appears to be someone who would not automatically come to mind in this discussion.
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The CIES Football Observatory recently published an article entitled ‘World football’s super accelerator'. Using data from SkillCorner, they built a model to determine players across 28 leagues 'whose number of accelerations per match deviates most positively from the value expected with respect to their position and their team’s style of play'. Here comes the science bit: "Accelerations refer to runs of at least 0.7 seconds at >10.8 km/h/s."
CIES provided the top 20 players for six positional groups: center forwards, wingers, attacking midfielders, central/defensive midfielders, full-backs and center-backs. With the number of leagues covered, a player is undoubtedly among the elite to feature.
You might expect to see several members of Jürgen Klopp’s squad making the cut, not least Szoboszlai. Yet the Reds only have one representative whereas (for instance) Rotherham United have two and Ipswich Town three. As players are judged against their team’s playing style, the fact Liverpool has the fourth fastest direct speed — in terms of how quickly it progresses the ball up field — in the Premier League likely counts against it. Indeed, none of the three teams ahead of it in those standings (Everton, Nottingham Forest and West Ham) have more than one player deemed a top accelerator either.
But however it’s defined and no matter what is taken into account, you likely wouldn’t pick Joe Gomez as the Reds’ sole qualifier. He has made 1.52 times more accelerated runs than expected for a full-back, sneaking into the leading group in joint 19th position.
Even if he’s not the fastest member of the squad, the England international recently put his sprinting to excellent use. In the 97th minute of the match at the City Ground last weekend, Gomez ran forward to close down Harry Toffolo, winning the corner from which Darwin Núñez scored a remarkable winning goal. It was certainly not the fastest sprint you’ll ever see but it proved to be a very valuable one.
With an eye on the future of the club, it’s interesting to see that the leading player from any position and the only man making twice as many accelerations as expected is Bayer Leverkusen full-back Jeremie Frimpong. The Reds have been linked with a move for the 23-year-old in the past but irrespective of whether the rumors become reality, the Dutch international is a key man for Xabi Alonso.
Alonso, as you might have heard, may become the next Liverpool manager. Just as Reds players look worse in the CIES model, Leverkusen’s slower play likely aids Frimpong’s cause. Even so, he is in the Bundesliga’s top 10 players this term for progressive carries, successful take-ons and carries into the penalty area.
Frimpong wouldn’t amass the numbers he has without being able to accelerate away from opponents and his ability has proven invaluable to Alonso. Should the former Reds midfielder take over from Klopp, he might just find an unexpected asset in Gomez.
