dot   Home     World     Europe     England  
Flag England

England

Peter Crouch: Rotated or just hated?

   

I just finished writing a comment in response to one of my readers (Jeff) calling into question my description of Peter Crouch as a “perpetual late-game substitute.” Jeff’s view – shared by a lot of people – is that Peter Crouch only plays so few games for Liverpool because Rafa Benitez operates a rotation system – nothing more. I don’t think this is true, so I decided to crunch some numbers. Note that this post doesn’t factor in European appearances – it’s late and I don’t have the energy to do it tonight. I’ll post again tomorrow with my conclusions adjusted for international appearances.

EDIT: Click here for part II, on Crouch in the Champions’ League. Believe it or not, he played in just 53% of Liverpool’s Champions’ League games last year, roughly the same percentage of games he played in the Premier League. Conventional wisdom is wrong, ladies and gentlemen.

A note as well, before we begin: Crouch has only had three injuries in his time at Liverpool: A broken nose on February 26th 2007, an achilles paratendinopathy on February 17th 2006, and a hamstring injury on August 3rd 2005. Injury has had no effect on his appearances this season.

So far this season, Crouch has played just 7 league games: starting in 2, coming on as a subsitute in 5, and scoring a grand total of zero (one assist this season against Fulham). He’s only played a full ninety minutes once, against Fulham. How does this compare to the rest of Liverpool’s team (bearing in mind that Benitez operates a rotation system)? This is a list of Liverpool players, in order of their number of starting league appearances this season (substitute appearances in parentheses):

J Reina 13 (0)
J Carragher 12 (0)
S Finnan 10 (1)
S Gerrard 10 (1)
A Arbeloa 10 (1)
S Hyypia 10 (0)
D Kuyt 9 (2)
J Riise 9 (2)
J Mascherano 8 (0)
J Pennant 8 (1)
F Torres 8 (3)
A Voronin 7 (3)
X Alonso 6 (0)
R Babel 4 (7)
Y Benayoun 4 (4)
D Agger 4 (1)
M Sissoko 5 (3)
P Crouch 2 (5)
F Aurelio 2 (0)
Lucas 1 (2)
H Kewell 1 (1)
R Putterill 0 (0)
S Leto 0 (0)
D Martin 0 (0)

What does this tell us? Firstly, it tells us that Crouch has been used, so far this Premier League campaign, as a subsitute. Anyone arguing otherwise is simply wrong. It also says that Crouch is Benitez’s fourth-choice striker, after Torres, Voronin, and Kuyt, irrespective of any rotation system.

Of course, we’re only a short way into the current season, so let’s look at last season. Bear in mind that Liverpool didn’t have Fernando Torres or Andrei Voronin in the squad to compete with Crouch for a starting berth back then, so you’d expect him to have made more of an impact:

First thing to notice: Benitez did not operate a squad-rotation system with regards to a number of key players, such as Gerrard, Reina, Carragher, Finnan, Riise, and Alonso. Crouch wasn’t considered important enough to be one of these immune players. Once again, starting appearances first (substitute appearances in parentheses)

S Gerrard 35 (1)
J Reina 35 (0)
J Carragher 34 (1)
S Finnan 32 (1)
J Riise 29 (4)
X Alonso 29 (3)
D Kuyt 27 (7)
D Agger 23 (4)
C Bellamy 23 (4)
S Hyypia 23 (0)
J Pennant 20 (14)
P Crouch 19 (13)
M Sissoko 15 (1)
M Gonzalez 14 (11)
Luis Garcia 11 (6)
F Aurelio 10 (7)
B Zenden 9 (7)
A Arbeloa 8 (1)
J Mascherano 7 (0)
R Fowler 6 (10)
J Dudek 2 (0)
G Paletta 2 (1)
E Insua 2 (0)
S Warnock 1 (0)
D Padelli 1 (0)
J Kromkamp 1 (0)
D Guthrie 0 (3)
J Hobbs 0 (0)
D Martin 0 (0)
H Kewell 0 (2)
N El Zhar 0 (3)
S Darby 0 (0)
L Peltier 0 (0)
P Anderson 0 (0)
M Roque 0 (0)
F Sinama Pongolle 0 (0)
J Smith 0 (0)

Conclusions? He played more regularly last season, but that’s to be expected without Fernando Torres and Andrei Voronin on the squad. Crouch was Benitez’s 13th most used player even before Torres showed up – and this despite the fact that, clearly, some players are used by Benitez on a consistent basis.

The point of all this is that Crouch isn’t playing rarely because Benitez is operating a rotation system – many more players have played many more games than him despite the system. If Crouch were a top striker stymied by rotation, he wouldn’t rank 18th in his number of starts at Liverpool this season and 13th last season; he wouldn’t be Benitez’s 4th-choice striker by some margin this season; and if Crouch were seen as a first-team player rather than an impact substitute, he would be starting more games, rotation system or no.

Crouch’s problem isn’t squad rotation: it’s that Rafa Benitez doesn’t want to play him in the Premier League.


  • http://www.ryaas.com/?p=467 Ryaas.Com » Peter Crouch: Rotated or just hated?

    [...] (Mark Torres) wrote an interesting post today on Peter Crouch: Rotated or just hated?Here’s a quick [...]

  • http://www.theoffside.com/world-football/daily-dose-261107.html Daily Dose: 26.11.07 – World Football – The Offside – Soccer News and Opinion from leagues around the world

    [...] Peter Crouch: Rotated, hated, terrible dancer, or all 3? (England WC Blog) [...]

  • England Gambler

    It does seem that Benitez has almost a Champions League side and a Premiership side. They are both completely different things. It would be interesting to see how these numbers compare to those of ECL games. Would we find Crouchosaurus plays more in Europe? Probably. I really hope he gets out of Merseyside (unless he joins Everton) and finds a new side where he can prove his ability week in week out. I’m a West Ham fan – we’ll have you there Peter!

  • http://england.worldcupblog.org/squad-selection/peter-crouch-he-doesnt-play-in-europe-either.html Peter Crouch: He doesn’t play in Europe, either – England

    [...] look at his European record, and reveals that conventional wisdom on the player is flat out wrong. Part I, on Crouch and the Premier League, is here. The conventional wisdom: Rafa Benitez operates a rotation system, with some players appearing more [...]

  • http://england.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-friendlies/the-england-worldcupblog-guide%e2%84%a2-to-england-for-fabio-capello.html The England WorldCupBlog Guide™ to England (for Fabio Capello) – England

    [...] You don’t have one, so you’ll probably have to settle for Peter Crouch, England’s premier late-game substitute, as your key striker. Michael Owen is a great goalscoring threat when he’s fit; sadly, this [...]

blog comments powered by Disqus
 

MORE EUROPE BLOGS

france
France World Cup Blog
993 articles | 12,643 comments
 
croatia
Croatia World Cup Blog
201 articles | 1,850 comments
 
czechrepublic
Czech Republic World Cup Blog
196 articles | 322 comments
 
england
England Football Team World Cup Blog
1,035 articles | 5,228 comments
 
germany
Germany World Cup Blog
687 articles | 5,278 comments
 
italy
Italy World Cup Blog
1,028 articles | 32,761 comments
 
netherlands
Netherlands World Cup Blog
2,515 articles | 63,453 comments
 
poland
Poland World Cup Blog
489 articles | 7,787 comments
 
portugal
Portugal World Cup Blog
547 articles | 9,427 comments
 
serbia
Serbia World Cup Team Blog
208 articles | 1,511 comments
 
spain
Spain World Cup Blog
347 articles | 3,327 comments
 
sweden
Sweden World Cup Blog
226 articles | 385 comments
 
switzerland
Switzerland World Cup Blog
270 articles | 452 comments
 
ukraine
Ukraine World Cup Team Blog
119 articles | 1,003 comments
 
greece
Greece World Cup Blog
205 articles | 217 comments
 
russia
Russia World Cup Blog
110 articles | 366 comments
 
scotland
Scotland World Cup Team Blog
129 articles | 124 comments
 
ireland
Ireland World Cup Team Blog
112 articles | 166 comments
 
norway
Norway World Cup Team Blog
16 articles | 8 comments
 
turkey
Turkey World Cup Blog
49 articles | 314 comments
 
romania
Romania World Cup Blog
78 articles | 281 comments
 
austria
Austria World Cup Blog
111 articles | 118 comments
 
denmark
Denmark World Cup Team Blog
72 articles | 149 comments
 
albania
Albania World Cup Team Blog
4 articles | 8 comments
 
belgium
Belgium World Cup Team Blog
49 articles | 59 comments
 
wales
Wales World Cup Team Blog
62 articles | 17 comments
 
bosnia
Bosnia World Cup Team Blog
52 articles | 112 comments
 
israel
Israel World Cup Team Blog
33 articles | 28 comments
 
slovakia
Slovakia World Cup Team Blog
18 articles | 20 comments
 
slovenia
Slovenia World Cup Team Blog
43 articles | 133 comments
 

CATEGORIES & ARCHIVES

 

 
Closer

EPL Jerseys
EPL Tickets
English Premier League
Chelsea
Manchester United
Manchester City
Arsenal
Liverpool FC
Aston Villa
Premier League Betting
Tournaments
Euro 2012 Qualifying
Africa Cup of Nations 2012
UEFA Champions League
Europa League

Follow WorldCupBlog on Facebook   Follow WorldCupBlog on Twitter  
World Cup Resources
World Cup History
World Cup Legends
World Cup Memorable Moments
World Cup Photos
World Cup Videos