I just thought I’d take a look at some of the numbers behind two 21 yo Strikers – David Ngog (2010) and Fernando Torres (2005).

Click here to download the game logs of both players during the season they turned 21 respectively.

Torres 2005

In 2005 Torres turned 21. Already by this age he had two complete season of Spanish Primera Division football under his belt equalling a total of 66 games of which . The season before he had earned his first cap for Spain. During the 2004-2005 season Torres managed a total of 15 goals in 37 games (started all 37). All in all he managed a goal every 219 minutes of playing time. In that time he missed only one half of football for his club. A ratio goals scored versus minutes played reveals he averaged 0.41 goals per 90 min (a goals to effective games ratio!). Not bad for a 21 year old!

Ngog 2010

Five years Torres’ junior, David Ngog is currently playing at the age of 21. Prior to this season David has had three seasons of professional football under his belt. However, unlike his more illustrious team mate in that time he managed only 38 games, 14 of which were from the start. So far this season David Ngog has managed to score 6 goals 23 games (started 13). He has averaged a goal every 203 minutes played. His goals scored versus minutes played reveals he averaged 0.44 goals per 90 min.

David Ngog
mins per goal 202.83
Goals per 90 min 0.44

Fernando Torres
mins per goal 219.07
Goals per 90 min 0.41

Take a look at the complete breakdown of their games played that season (in the attached spread sheet).

In analysis there is no escaping the fact that Fernando Torres is by far the superior striker in this comparison. By the age of 21 he was already the best player at At. Madrid. He was an full international. In 2005 At. Madrid finished 11th mostly due to his exploits. He was a true world class talent back then and is today a World class striker bar none!
However, Ngog without the experience of having played first team football for long is still about on pace as far as the stats are concerned. These is no denying that the reason he does not have more experience is because he is not good enough (yet) to command a starting spot. Torres had to contend with the 31 year old Ballesta Salva (1 Spain Cap) and 29 year old Richard Nunez for his starting spot. Not to do wither of these gentlemen a disservice but neither are household names let alone possibly the greatest strikers in the world! During his PSG days Ngog competed with Pauleta (Portuguese striker) and Amara Diane (Ivory Cost Striker). Now he finds himself behind an even better striker in the form of the mature Torres. Not an enviable task for any striker!

Without the experience of games at the highest level Ngog has still managed to score 4 goals that have directly resulted in points for the club. His averages match those of one of the best strikers in the game at the same age during their respective careers.

Conclusions are not easy to draw from this data simply because there is not guaranteed correlation between two different players careers. I would venture to say that Ngog’s performances to date, judged in the light of his relative inexperience can be looked at as encouraging. This is not some kind of promise that he will succeed in his career but it certainly reveal that there is enough to work with. I doubt he will ever reach the heights of a Torres who like the Rooney’s and Fowlers and Owen’s is a football prodigy but I can see Ngog cutting a niche for himself within this game. Learning to harness the benefits of his physical attributes will be his route to success. That I am afraid will take time.

Will we have the patience to see if he bears fruit.?

YNWA

MoKo

Two wins in a row..now that is something as Liverpool fans we have not been used to over the last couple of weeks. After we beat Wolves, I was very worried about facing Aston Villa at Villa Park. Truth be told, we did not play well against Wolves but we still got the win. Last night, we did not play particularly well and I had settled for the draw but we have that lad from sunny Spain, who got the ball and scored again!

I am reading reports this morning where Steven Gerrard is saying Torres is the best striker in the world and I can not disagree with Captain Fantastic. Torres’ goal yesterday in stoppage time was simply brilliant. Here is a guy who had not had many chances during the course of the game but one mistake by the Villa defence and we punished them to take a 1-0 win.

That is the beauty of having a player like Torres in our team. He may do nothing for 90 minutes but give him one sniff at goal and he will score. There is a lot of talk that has been going around that Torres may leave Liverpool if we do not qualify for the Champions League. I am sure Torres himself is rubbishing such speculation and I don’t think it is even going to matter as we ARE going to finish in the top 4.

All we need to do now is get on a run of winning a couple of games and we will be right up that solidifying our top 4 finish. We have Spurs as our next league game and that is going to be a big one! You can almost call it a six pointer as a win for us would close the gap between us and Spurs.

The last time Glen Johnson got a taste of exactly the kind of fanaticism that awaits travelling football players in Bangkok, he was wearing distinctly different colours. The blue of Chelsea, to be precise.

At Tuesday’s press conference in the ballroom of the Grand Erawan hotel, the Englishman was all smiles, all ready to answer questions, and as Rafa put it, all ready to play. And he looked just right in the red of Liverpool FC. “It’s been fantastic. Everybody’s been great to me, helped me settle in. It’s brilliant here in Bangkok, all those fans in the Liverpool shirts, it’s a great sight to see,” he said, and added a hope that he could come up with the kind of consistent display he had last season with Portsmouth.

Today was a busy day for the squad, with the division of duties all too evident to anyone who happened to be out on a cloudy day in the Thai capital. When I was returning home, a cavalcade of policemen on bikes furiously signalled for our car to stop so a string of minivans could pass by, and yes, they contained Liverpool FC”s finest, eager for a bit of sightseeing. A few went to the Grand Palace, while others were packed off to do their various promotional commitments and football clinics. They probably did squeeze in a few hours rest before the nearly two-hour long training session that was to take place at the Rajamangala Stadum in the evening, passes to which were very kindly handed out to me by Steve McMahon, who is very nice to talk to, even if you are tongue-tied and star-struck.

At the beginning of the evening’s practice, the players confined themselves to two small circles in the centre of the field, but the stadium had been taken over by roaring, screaming, flag-waving supporters who were well-versed in all the Liverpool anthems. ‘We all dream of a team of Carraghers’ was repeated again and again as the man himself knocked a few balls around, along with emphatic cries of ‘Xabi don’t go’, ‘Mascherano don’t leave for Barca’, and requests to Fernando Torres to convey the same message to his countrymate: ‘Tell Xabi no go to Real, tell Xabi to stay, Fernando!’

Torres, meanwhile, contented himself with running laps around the athletics track at the stadium, checking his watch every now and then, and was soon joined by Yossi Benayoun, Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso. They deigned to raise their hands to the crowd now and then, every time bringing up a fresh wave of cheers. In the kickabout that followed, the following were moments worthy of some noise: Johnson’s excellent backheel flick of a pass in the middle, Pepe’s quick recovery for a save that was nearly a lost cause, Carra getting stuck into the opposition, and so what if it happened to be his own clubmate, he was on a different team for the moment.

Torres and Alonso went off early back to the locker room to thunderous applause, and it’s pretty certain that the Spanish contingent will play a role only in the end credits of Wednesday’s match. Johnson is likely to be in the first XI, and after less than impressive results in their last two friendlies, Liverpool will look to get in a win on their pre-season tour of Asia. But regardless of the result, their visit here will be referred to time and again amongst the hordes of fanatics who have been thronging the hotel and stadium the last two days for a glimpse of a world they only see on television between August and May each season. They lined the path inside and outside the stadium gates once it was time for the players to leave the stadium after their practice on Tuesday night, and waited excitedly in the hope of getting another chance to get close to their heroes. There was no sign of that happening anytime soon, but they were happy to bide time discussing all things Liverpool, and it’ll stay in their minds as a happy memory forever.

I know I’ll never forget it.

It looks like we will be without Torres for this weekends trip to Middlesbrough after El Nino twisted his ankle early on in the game against Real Madrid. I wonder if him staying on for longer during that game made the injury worse? He did not look his normal self at all after picking up the injury. This has been a bad season for Torres injury wise.

I think El Nino needs a good rest and the unfortunate part is that he will not be getting a rest this summer as Spain will be visiting us here in South Africa to take part in the FIFA Confederations Cup. As much as I am looking forward to seeing Torres, I actually wish he would stay at home and rest this summer so he can be fully fit for us next season.

Torres may even miss the game in midweek against Sunderland and hopefully he will be fit for the return tie with Real Madrid and more importantly the trip to Old Trafford on 14 March. The full extent of El Nino’s injury will only be known today. We cross our fingers that it is not too serious.

I loved the little battle that was taking place in last nights game between Fernando Torres and Real Madrid’s defender, Pepe. Before the game, Pepe had come out and said that he was going to ‘beat down’ Torres during the game. I think in the first 5 minutes of the game Torres fouled Pepe and left the big Brazilian on the floor. I kept a close eye on this battle all night and the two were having a real go at each other last night. It would have been great if Torres had gotten a goal last night and rubbed it into Pepe’s face! The picture below just showcases that there is no love between these two.

There are suggestions in the papers today that Barcelona may be lining up a summer move for our Fernando Torres. At first thought, I laughed this idea off. There is no way I see us selling Torres, it would be like selling the heart beat of the team. They are saying that with the financial pressure we are under, we may be forced to sell a player like Torres so we can balance the books. I am also not sure if Torres himself would want to play for Barcelona having been a Madrid boy.

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Now that Robbie Keane has left, we are short of options upfront. Well Rafa does not seen to think so, but I think we will struggle big time if Torres gets injured! Rafa says we still have Kuyt, Babel and Ngog if Torres gets injured but I have no faith in any three of them being held responsible for getting us the goals needed to win the title. With that said, I pray that Torres does not get injured and he can get us the goals for the rest of the season.
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Another injury blow for Fernando Torres. Torres will be out of action for between 2 and 3 weeks after picking up another hamstring strain in the game against Marseille this week. This is already the third time that Torres has been forced onto the sidelines by his hamstring this season. This is now reminding me of the days when we had Michael Owen always out injured with his hamstring. What to do, what to do now!
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The sight we all wanted to see, Fernando Torres back on the pitch. It was great to see him get a run out in the closing minutes against West Brom. We have missed Torres over the last couple of games, we could have down with his killer instinct infront of goal against Atletico and Spurs but whilst Torres was out we did not do too badly. But now that El Nino is back, what is this going to mean for us? “Good times ahead” a lot of us will be saying, but spare a thought for Rafa and the players.
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After our inability to convert chances on the weekend against Spurs, I feel we really need Torres back in action. We had done so well up until now without our lethal striker but we need a player of such quality. Torres could easily have made the difference on Saturday from us loosing 2-1 to us winning 4-0. I just hope that he has fully recovered from his hamstring injury. Rafa says Torres may start tomorrow against Atletico Madrid or atleast he will get a place on the bench. There is no need to rush players back from hamstring injuries but the sooner we get Torres back the better.
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