Crunching the numbers: How Martin Zubimendi’s stats compare to Liverpool’s current number 6 options
Martin Zubimendi has emerged as Liverpool’s primary transfer target, with the ever-reliable Paul Joyce reporting today that the Reds are considering a swoop for the Real Sociedad midfielder.
Of course, as David Ornstein pointed out in The Athletic, Anfield chiefs still need to convince the 25-year-old to relocate to Merseyside, in addition to paying his full release clause of £51.7m if the LaLiga outfit are unwilling to negotiate a fee for less than that amount.
Still a few hurdles to be cleared, then, but coming towards the end of a transfer window in which we’ve had to be very patient for concrete activity, it’s difficult not to get excited at the prospect of the Euro 2024 winner replicating the move that a certain Xabi Alonso made 20 years ago.
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The question that many Liverpool fans may already be asking is how he sizes up in comparison to the defensive midfield options in Arne Slot’s current squad. We’ve crunched the numbers from FBref to provide as insightful an answer as can be gleaned at this moment in time.
For reference, we’ll be comparing’s Zubimendi’s figures from the 2023/24 club season with the Reds’ primary number 6 in Wataru Endo, as well as two others at LFC who’ve played in that role in Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch.
Tackling
Zubimendi won 55.1% of tackles that he made for Real Sociedad last season, which is only marginally eclipsed by Mac Allister (55.6%) and Endo (58.3%) and is significantly higher than Gravenberch (46.1%).
In terms of dribblers tackled, the Spaniard’s success rate of 54.8% was notably higher than the Liverpool trio, with the Argentine coming closest to him with 47.2%.
Interceptions
Overall, Zubimendi’s tally of 37 interceptions was superior to each of Mac Allister (35), Endo (20) and Gravenberch (14). When broken down into the number recorded per 90 minutes on the pitch, he still comes out on top with 1.25, with the Reds trio averaging 1.21, 1.05 and 1.11 respectively.
Aerial duels
With 61.1%, Zubimendi had a significantly better win rate for aerial challenges last season than Endo (53.4%), Mac Allister (52.5%) and Gravenberch (41.7%). While at 1.81m tall he has a narrow height advantage on the Japan and Argentina internationals, all three are notably shorter than the Dutchman at 1.9m.
Ball recoveries
Overall the Spaniard’s tally of 169 ball recoveries in 2023/24 was second only to Mac Allister among the players that we’re comparing here, although his per 90 average of 5.73 is less than the Argentine (6.75) and the Dutchman (5.87).
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Dribbling
So far we’ve looked at Zubimendi’s statistics in terms of his work off the ball, but what about when he’s in possession?
The figures show that he has an aptitude for beating opponents one-on-one, succeeding with 66.7% of his attempted take-ons in 2023/24. Endo is the next best at 62.5%, followed by Mac Allister on 52.9% and Gravenberch on 47.1%.
Passing accuracy
The Real Sociedad midfielder completed 85.7% of his passes last season, which perhaps surprisingly for a Spain international is inferior to Mac Allister (86.6%) and Endo (88%), though it still beats Gravenberch with 82.2%.
However, when we look at long passes made, the Spaniard’s 68.3% completion rate is beaten only by the Japan captain’s 71.4%, which illustrates that the 25-year-old could improve Liverpool’s ability to pick out a pass from distance from the middle of the park.
Goal and shot creation
This is one notable aspect where Zubimendi has scope for improvement in comparison to our current CDM options.
In 2023/24 he averaged 1.87 shot-creating actions (SCA) and 0.14 goal-creating actions (GCA) per 90 minutes. His SCA figure was only half that of both Mac Allister and Gravenberch (3.74 each) and also inferior to Endo’s 2.82.
In terms of GCA per game, the Spaniard ranked narrowly below the Japanese midfielder (0.16) and, unsurprisingly, well behind the Argentine’s 0.42, with our number 10 typically playing much further forward in order to be able to make an impact in the final third.
Expected goals
Lastly, the modern age football boffin’s favourite metric. Zubimendi averaged 2.7 xG in LaLiga last term, which lags behind the 3.7 for Mac Allister in the Premier League but trumped the combined xG output of Gravenberch (2.0) and Endo (0.5).
For non-penalty xG, all the figures above are maintained except for the Argentine, whose tally is then reduced to 2.9, just about eclipsing the Spain midfielder.
Conclusion
In terms of breaking up the play, Zubimendi would appear to be an upgrade on Endo, Mac Allister and Gravenberch, although that’s to be expected over the latter two, who aren’t specialist number 6s.
The Spaniard also excels in terms of progressing the ball, even if there’s slight scope for improvement when it comes to passing accuracy.
His xG figure is also more than respectable in comparison to the Liverpool trio, especially for someone who plays almost exclusively as a defensive midfielder, whereas the Argentine tends to feature higher up the pitch.
All in all, Zubimendi seems to have more strings to his bow than Endo in terms of the skill set required for the defensive midfield role at Anfield, although that’s not to denigrate the important contribution of the 31-year-old in his first season for the Reds.
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