Fabio Borini is Brendan Rodger’s first signing as Liverpool manager. The striker has come from Roma where he was on loan and has passed a medical and agreed his personal terms earlier on Friday. what do we think of his fantasy premier league prospects
Background and transfer to Liverpool
The 21 year old has worked with Rodgers previously, in the Chelsea youth set up, along with a short time on loan in 2010-11 at Swansea City.
After Chelsea he joined Parma, He was immediately loaned out to Roma, where he scored 9 times in 24 matches. The club then purchased him at a total cost of £6m. He also had a place on Italy’s Euro 2012 squad, but was kept on the bench throughout the run to the final, where they were defeated by Spain.
Here’s some quotes as printed in the Daily Mail. Firstly from Borini
‘I felt really good because I wanted to come back to England one day. I knew sooner or later I would be back,’ he said.
‘Being back with Liverpool is even better because I can show the people what I can do – we’ve got the Europa League and lots of things to play for.
‘I hope to achieve the maximum I can, by scoring goals, getting into the Champions League and all of the things the club also wants – and all the other players.
‘It’s a top club that has won a lot of trophies in the past – and will do so in the future we hope as well.’
‘I’ve got the trust of the manager and the club, which for me is very nice and I’m proud to be here,’ he told Liverpoolfc.com.
‘He was very important. I wouldn’t say it was the key, but most of it came from him.
‘Even during last season, I spoke with him a lot. I’d text him and ask if he was okay and congratulated him on the results he got with Swansea.
‘First of all it is a relationship of friendship and afterwards it is a working one. That is more important than anything.
‘I used to play 4-3-3 with him and he is very good to play football for.
‘It is great to play football for him because you can have fun and you can get results.
‘I could see at Swansea the people loved him because the football was attractive. People like to see football (played) like this.’
A few quotes from Rodgers
‘Fabio fits the model of what we’re trying to do in building not only for now, but also for the future,’.
‘He’s a big talent, 21 years of age, he scores goals, and his passion, focus and concentration is a very important part of his game – and a big part of what you want from a player.
‘I think the supporters will love him. He’s a multi-functional player who can play in a number of positions and someone I believe has got great growth.
‘I’d anticipate that over the next two or three years he’ll really progress and I’m sure do very well for Liverpool.
‘He is arguably the best physical player I’ve worked with in terms of his pace, power and fitness.
‘Mentally, he’s very strong. We’ve got a player who is on the up and someone who I think Liverpool will benefit from.’
‘I don’t want to put any unnecessary pressure on him. I believe he’s one who can impact now – and he still has a lot of learning, growth and a lot to achieve in the game,’
‘To leave a club like Roma having done very well for them shows the pull we have as a football club.’
Analysis and prospects
His Soccernet stats from last year were as follows:
TEAM Competition GS SB G A SH SG YC RC
AS Roma Serie A 20 4 9 0 48 18 3 0
In addition for fantasy premier league analysis, An excellent article by in Epl index drew some interesting conclusions
(i) His shots to goal conversion rate was better than the likes of Suarez (who isnt ?) and Sturridge and although not of RVP and Ba’s standard weren’t shabby at all. He mirrored them with Steven Fletcher interestingly who had his moments as a cheap striker in a relegation stricken team.
(ii) His shots per game however were very poor in comparison to all the other strikers compared which led to a low goals to game ratio. This is explained in the article by playing on the wing. This stat explanation or not makes me nervous. I prefer fantasy premier league strikers to shoot with frequency as fantasy premier league gold star strokers Rooney and RVP do.
(iii) Don’t be looking for assists though. He wasn’t really involved in the build up play and made a low number of key passes. This doesn’t really stack up with the wing play which is strange,.you would expect more key passes in fantasy premier league.
(iv) He presses the ball high up the pitch in the Rodgers style of play.
(v) His shots on target ratio from the Soccernet stats are appalling so coupled with a low shot ratio its no wonder he doesn’t score with great frequency.
Its hard to draw too much from the stats only but they don’t really excite me I have to say and it will take some convincing for me to consider him for my fantasy premier league opening day team. That’s before we get to Liverpools appalling early season fixtures (WBA A, Man C H, ARS H, SUN A MUN H). Its hard to imagine fantasy premier league fixtures much worse.
On the value front, he hasn’t appeared in the Sky or Telegraph values as yet but it would take some frightening form in pre-season to put him in my fantasy premier league opening game team for the reasons above. I do think he will start though given Rodgers style of play in comparison to Andy Carrol who patently isn’t.
Sources: Daily Mail, Wikipedia, Soccernet, EPL index
http://www.eplindex.com/16381/liverpool-target-fabio-borini-comprehensive-statistical-analysis.html
