da dobrowin： Liverpool’s Adam Lallana has long been a divisive figure amongst supporters, but only now is getting the recognition he deserves. A £25 million price-tag might have weighed him down a little, and there was a series of niggling injuries, but his quality was always there.
da poker： Statistics don’t always tell the full story, but the fact that Lallana broke the record for the most distance covered in a Premier League game this season (12.5 km against Tottenham) and then broke his own record again the following week (13.1 km against Leicester) is hugely impressive.
He also scored the 100th goal of the Jurgen Klopp era with an excellent strike from the corner of the box, into the top corner. Fitting, given how vital he has now become under the German; less than a year ago it was presumed by many that he would soon not even get into the team.
End product has not always been there for Liverpool’s number 20, but it now appears that he has found the consistency, scoring against Arsenal and Leicester so far, as well as for England. He has arguably been the best player of the season for his club so far, whilst he was comfortably the best for his country in Slovakia.
Not one to throw himself into tackles and lacking real pace, Lallana can sometimes go unnoticed for periods, but he is a vital cog for the teams he represents, regardless. Take him out of the Liverpool side, for example, and you lose the key mechanism for pressing. Lallana’s intelligence and desire make him ideal to trigger the pressing movements of the whole team, and he is usually the instigator.
Statistics like distance run and goals scored are of course useful, but other things – like game intelligence, or understanding of tactical concepts – are unquantifiable. That Lallana has a football brain more advanced than any current England player does not fit into a handy stat, and therefore can sometimes be ignored.
The best two-footed and balanced player England have is often perceived as a luxury, and should be more appreciated.
It is perhaps telling that other players with less flair and imagination are considered much better or more important than him. The natural stance in English football is to favour athleticism over technique, and is detrimental to the way the national team plays.
For English football to develop, we need more players like him. Hard work can be done by anyone, but tactical nous and a natural ability and understanding of the game is much more difficult to find. Adam Lallana has both and then some, and the imminent new deal at Liverpool is richly deserved.
This article was submitted via our Write For Us feature. Think you can do better? Submit your own article via the link below, and give yourself the chance of winning monthly cash prizes…
[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]