re: Liverpool FC 2011/12 Season Thread

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His shots are from absolutely impossible angles.

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So what's the excuse for him not scoring at the same pace against the Wolves, Wigans, Boltons, etc. of the PL as he did in Holland? Both he and his support at Liverpool out class those sides. I agree to an extent, but there's more to it than "England's harder".

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Because he isn't a finisher

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The sheer technical ability of the keepers in the EPL highlight this fact.

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When we say big chances they do not all need to be as glaring a miss as that of Buszaky (sorry Akos) but include one on ones with the keeper and free headers from close range, as well as open goals etc.

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Ericksen fits Arsenal's play so well it will be a shame to play against him when he is the bosss of redface's mid-field.

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They calculate that Suarez has had 21 BIG CHANCES and has missed 16 of them! 16! That is a conversion rate of 24%!!!

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Yet a decent proportion of Suárez's shots are self-created, following good movement into the channels, a quick turn and then a direct dart into the box. His shot after 40 minutes of Saturday's meeting with Arsenal was a fine example – he rolled Thomas Vermaelen, turned past Alex Song, skipped away from Bacary Sagna and then cut inside Laurent Koscielny within five seconds, to present himself with a clear sight of goal 10 yards out, having picked up the ball on the edge of the area with his back to goal. Having expended so much energy with the burst past opponents, and with his balance increasingly slipping away as he escaped past each challenge, in the end all he could manage was a tame, stabbed shot that was easily turned away by Wojciech Szczesny. How much credit do you give the player for creating the opportunity, and how much blame for squandering it? In a one-off incident it's an exceptional piece of skill. Yet when the pattern is repeated over a period of nearly 90 shots (not all in this fashion, of course), you wonder if Suárez is simply trying to do too much.

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Suárez's best role is up for debate – his good form at Ajax came when moving inside from a right-sided position, then with Uruguay he excelled at the Copa América last year when used as the primary striker. Importantly, he seemed to have much more of a defined role in the side, much stricter instructions. At Liverpool his role has varied between playing up front alone, and just behind Andy Carroll. He's generally been Liverpool's best attacking player this season – though Craig Bellamy has also played well – but too much of the play is dependent upon him, and he becomes the main man responsible for both creativity and goalscoring. To do two things at once is to do neither, Publilius Syrus once wrote, and Suarez's six goals are supplemented by a single assist.

Granted, pinning him down to a more specific role would be tricky considering the woes of his team-mates. You don't want to depend on Stewart Downing for service at the moment, nor on Carroll for goals, and Suárez often seems keener to go alone than involve certain other team-mates in his play. But one man running the show can cause others problems – David Beckham famously averted a crisis against Greece in 2001, but had probably contributed to the crisis with his positionless Roy of the Rovers act for much of the game.

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At heart Suárez is a goalscorer, and it is only fine margins costing him. He's hit the woodwork six times this season – as many times as he has scored. That record suggests that he's on the right track, and he can look to his opposing striker on Saturday to see how important a couple of inches can be – Robin van Persie was previously the king of hitting the woodwork, now he's the best finisher in the Premier League.

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