Better in two key areas: Liverpool target Sander Berge can be the new Fabinho
Liverpool transfer target Sander Berge is better than Fabinho in two key areas and he can be the man replace the Brazilian when the time comes.
Goal reported that the Reds want to sign the Norwegian international and that Genk would be open to doing a deal, but is there any point of Jurgen Klopp can call on the services of his favourite Brazilian destroyer?
Using some data from Smarter Scout we’ve ran a comparison of the two players 2019/2020 Champions League seasons to see who does what the best.
There were a few surprising statistics that stood out.
Let’s go off their European adventures first: Fabinho has a much lower ball retention score than Sander Berge, who gets a remarkable 93. The Brazilian? 23. They’ve played against the same opposition, basically, and so it’s really interesting to see that the Genk man is keeping the ball a lot better.
Berge is also much better at heading and tackling, while he tends to do better at holding off those trying to steal the ball away from him.
Where Fabinho comes out on top is his ability to disrupt play and launch the ball forward in the name of starting attacks. This can be illustrated by the Brazilian’s interception count of six in four Champions League games – Berge has five.
| Defe | Defe | Defe | Defe | Defe | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Day | Round | Venue | Result | Squad | Opponent | Start | Min | Tkl | Int | Fls | CrdY | CrdR |
| 2019-09-17 | Tue | Group Stage | Away | L 0–2 | eng Liverpool | it Napoli | Y | 90 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019-10-02 | Wed | Group Stage | Home | W 4–3 | eng Liverpool | at RB Salzburg | Y | 90 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019-10-23 | Wed | Group Stage | Away | W 4–1 | eng Liverpool | be Genk | Y | 90 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019-11-05 | Tue | Group Stage | Home | W 2–1 | eng Liverpool | be Genk | Y | 90 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4/4 | 360 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
Provided by FBref.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/17/2019.
| Defe | Defe | Defe | Defe | Defe | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Day | Round | Venue | Result | Squad | Opponent | Start | Min | Tkl | Int | Fls | CrdY | CrdR |
| 2019-09-17 | Tue | Group Stage | Away | L 2–6 | be Genk | at RB Salzburg | Y | 90 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019-10-02 | Wed | Group Stage | Home | D 0–0 | be Genk | it Napoli | Y | 90 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019-10-23 | Wed | Group Stage | Home | L 1–4 | be Genk | eng Liverpool | Y | 90 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019-11-05 | Tue | Group Stage | Away | L 1–2 | be Genk | eng Liverpool | Y | 90 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4/4 | 360 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Provided by FBref.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/17/2019.
Curiously, Fab has made way more tackles than the 21-year-old and this could indicate that his positioning is far superior. Berge may be carrying them out more successfully, but the Brazilian is in place to make more. The Liverpool man has 10 – the Genk starlet just three.
Sander Berge is also a more accomplished attacker and has a way higher attacking output (61) than Fabinho (28), but that’s not the Liverpool man’s job.
It’s interesting to see that the 21-year-old is more efficient in the defensive work he does, but the number of times he carries out each defensive action seems to indicate that some work on his positioning is required.
This is an area of the pitch in which the club don’t really have a direct back up for Fabinho, and a move for Berge could certainly solve that issue. He’s young, there is a lot of room to grow, at 6’5″ there is a lot of man for defenders to get past and his raw attributes are highly encouraging.
Next. Three reasons why Liverpool should sign Ryan Fraser. dark
With a little development there is no reason why the Genk man can’t become as good as Fab, if not better, over time.