Player Focus: Unstoppable Luis Suárez

There’s simply no stopping Luis Suárez at present. The Uruguayan has netted 10 times in December thus far and has either scored or assisted 14 of Liverpool’s last 17 goals in the Premier League. The 26-year-old has picked up 4 successive WhoScored man of the match awards in their last 4 matches, turning out a perfect 10-out-of-10 performance in each fixture.

While the likes of Sergio Agüero and Mesut Özil have been winning the plaudits this season for their performances, the fact of the matter is Suárez is just that bit better. The striker is currently WhoScored’s highest rated player in Europe’s top 5 leagues with a rating of 8.92, while his total of 8 man of the match awards from just 12 league appearances is the most on the continent.

It was little surprise to have seen that the Reds were so keen to tie him down to a new long-term deal, supposedly worth £200k-a-week. Having missed the initial 5 games of the season on the back of his suspension for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic, and a summer that saw him linked with a move away from Anfield, the former Ajax ace has gone a long way to repaying the faith shown in him by Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers.

With the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson providing from midfield, Suárez is capitalising on their creativity to great effect having netted 19 times, meaning he’s scored 45.2% of Liverpool’s goals this season, a remarkable feat considering the controversial frontman has played just 12 of their 17 league matches. More pertinently, that input is the highest of every player in England’s top tier this term.

The Merseyside outfit currently sit atop the Premier League as they look to secure their first top division title since 1990 and Suárez will be central to this. Liverpool may have won 3 of the 5 games he missed at the beginning of the season, but the major difference is the drop in goals when he wasn’t around.

Over the quintet of top-flight fixtures, the Reds netted 5 times, an average of 1 per game. Since the Uruguay international came back into the fold, Liverpool have seen their average number of goals per game rise considerably to 3.08 per encounter, with Suárez also providing 5 assists for his teammates over that time.

That figure is only 3 fewer than Wayne Rooney (8), the Manchester United striker having provided the most assists in the Premier League this term. Suárez has been showcasing his capability to find a teammate and provide them with goalscoring opportunities to match his eye for goal. This is accentuated in his average of 3.2 key passes executed per game; only Manchester City’s David Silva (3.7) is executing more in the whole Premier League.

Not only has his return coincided with Liverpool’s notable run of form, but his performances are bringing out the best in those many had believed weren’t good enough to ply their trade at this level. Henderson is a prime example of this, with the young midfielder enjoying his best spell in a Reds shirt since he signed from Sunderland in 2011.

Player Focus: Unstoppable Luis Suárez

The 23-year-old has assisted 10 goals since his arrival on Merseyside, with 7 of those being for Suárez, including all 5 of his assists this term. Evidently, the England international is charged with ensuring Suárez scores and he’s doing so on a consistent basis.

This is further reinforced in that Henderson has played 29 key passes from open play this term, only Eden Hazard (36) and Moussa Sissoko (32) have executed more in the Premier League. Accordingly, 82.8% of those key passes have come in the 12 games Suárez has played.

With a player of Suárez’s ability at his disposal, Rodgers is clearly aiming to bring out the best in his primary attacking threat and rightly so. The conversion rate of the player currently sits at 24.7%, only Yaya Touré (30%) and Danny Welbeck (25%) are beating the opposition goalkeeper more consistently of every player to have scored 5 or more Premier League goals this term.

The performances of the Uruguay international has seen many dub him the ideal striker in the modern game, with many believing him to be one of, if not the, best in the world at present. Ahead of the World Cup, England fans are understandably fearful of the worst when the national team meet Uruguay in the group stages, but before then; Premier League teams must work harder than ever to contain an in-form Suárez.

This is proving to be even greater a task that players up and down the country had initially anticipated as Suárez aims to continue this blistering run of form and cement his place amongst the world’s best. With it, he has ensured Liverpool top the Premier League at Christmas – the last 4 teams to have done so have gone on to secure the title, and now the question remains whether he and his teammates can go on to do the same.