Liverpool’s attackers, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah in particular, are known for their incredible speed – but remarkably – have been outpaced this season by our centre-backs!
Based on the maximum speed they’ve reached this term, Joe Gomez is Liverpool’s fastest player, closely followed by his partner at the back, Virgil van Dijk.
Mane comes in next, but Salah is only sixth, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson ahead of him!
Liverpool's fastest two players this season: Gomez and van Dijk! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/gLtHsqYh9P
— Empire of the Kop (@empireofthekop) October 27, 2018
Roberto Firmino is not a player renowned for his speed, so the fact he’s reached the same pace as Salah is odd… It doesn’t look like he has when watching, but perhaps Bobby’s got more gas than we credit him for!
Of course, as Stephen Drennan points out, football speed isn’t about straight lines.
It's straight line speed.
Real pace in football is over short distances and speed on the turn and accelerate again. Lukaku is far faster than Messi for a 100m. But on a football pitch, one looks like lightening, the other looks glacial.
Andy Carroll was top at LFC when here. https://t.co/mHGq4liy2E
— Stephen Drennan (@babuyagu) October 27, 2018
What is important is that Liverpool have a number of quick players all over the pitch. When Klopp took over, we had the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana in the starting XI, who while good players, are not runners.
The manager has done brilliant work in the market to make us arguably the fastest team in world football.