Stats Preview: Liverpool v Man United

Liverpool vs Man United
Saturday, 12:45pm Kick off, Anfield

Fresh on the back of the Merseyside derby, albeit via an annoying international break, Liverpool host rivals Manchester United at Anfield in the Saturday lunchtime fixture.

Our friends at EA Sports Player Performance Index have some interesting stats ahead of the game;

• Liverpool defeated one of their great rivals in their last Barclays Premier League game. Liverpool covered 107.6km in the game against Everton compared to the Toffees 106.4km.

Martin Kelly covered more ground than any other Liverpool player with 11.6km while Leiva Lucas had the highest average speed with 5.47mph

Jose Enrique is Liverpool’s top ranked player in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index in 21st place followed by Luis Suarez in 21st place

Luis Suarez has now hit 4 goals in the Barclays Premier League, joint 4th in the goal scoring rankings with a shots on target percentage of 57%

Lucas Leiva has been anchoring the Liverpool midfield this season and has won 96% of tackles he has attempted so far. With 23 tackles won he is ranked 6th in the category in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index

• Manchester United made it 6 wins out of 7 games with a 2-0 victory over Norwich in the last round of games

• United have 4 players in the top 10 in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Wayne Rooney remains in top spot with midfield duo Oliveira Anderson and Ashley Young in 3rd and 4th place respectively

• United covered 122.9km in the game against Norwich with Darren Fletcher once again covering the most ground with 12.2km, while Ji-Sung Park showed typical industry in a rare Premier League start by covering the second highest amount of ground with 11.98km

• Wayne Rooney remains the Premier League’s top goal scorer with 9 goals this season. Rooney has had an incredible 32 attempts at goal this season, one every 18 minutes, getting 59% on target

• Nani has been a revelation for Manchester United this season. He is their top passer with 185 passes, one every 3 minutes 22 seconds and also the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index’s top dribbler having completed 32 dribbles. He is also ranked second in the Index for delivering crosses with 29 this season, just 1 behind Damien Duff who has 30

• Ashley Young’s stats are another great example of United’s delightful attacking football this season, completing a pass in his opponent’s half every 4 minutes 24 seconds, completing 30 dribbles, and delivering 25 crosses

• Rooney has gone on the record recently as saying that United are now defending from the front like Barcelona, and the stats show he is right. Rooney, Nani, and Young have won 6, 9 and 5 tackles respectively this season. This is especially impressive when you compare it to cross city rivals Aguero and Dzeko who have each won just one tackle.

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