Henderson/Spearing

by Guardian Chalkboards











I've tried to compare Jordan Henderson's passing to Jay Spearing.

First, a few important points. Jay and Jordan have different roles in the team, the point here isn't to say one is better, just to look at how they both play and compare what they do.

The first thing you notice is that Jay made more passes. He plays a more central role, so that's to be expected, most of our attacking movements will go through Jay, and as a ball-winner, he has to lay it off whenever he wins possession. Spearing made 68 passes, with a reasonable 58 finding the target. (About 85%)

Jordan, on the other hand, made 52 passes, with 40 of them finding their man. (About 76%) The key point here is that six of those lost passes were into the box. Spearing just doesn't operate in this area, he played a couple of very long balls forward, one of which found Kuyt just outside the area, and one, from inside his own half, that was lost in a similar position. Henderson is clearly playing a more attacking game, those balls into the box can either fall to a team-mate, in which case we're likely to score, or to an opponent, but not in a dangerous part of the field for us.

So the risks of losing possession for Spearing, who plays a lot deeper, are greater than they are for Henderson. Give it away in front of your own penalty area and you give the other team a chance to score, lose it around their box, and you don't. Henderson can afford to take more risks, in fact, he has to, as it is harder to find a man in that part of the field.

This is reflected in the percentages, with Spearing seemingly passing with more success than Henderson, but as I say, given their different roles, and the levels of risk involved, that is to be expected. On another day, Henderson could have ended up with three assists from those kind of passes.