Scouting Liverpool’s Academy 2019/2020 – Pedro Chirivella, Harvey Elliot, Neco Williams

Despite English football still being on hold due to the recent outbreak, Liverpool are very much on top of the world.

Not only have the Reds secured another Champions League trophy for their cabinet last season, but they are also on course to sweep the competition in the Premier League and win the coveted crown by a landslide.

Still, the Merseyside giants are much more than their first-team squad, led by the brilliant Jurgen Klopp.

Liverpool have an academy full of young and bright prospects that would love nothing more than to go out there and show their worth.

However, unfortunately, most of those kids are still largely unknown and will require further development before they start gracing the pitches of the top-flight.

This data analysis, however, will delve deeper into the statistics and try to uncover some of the best gems Liverpools academy has to offer.

The data means nothing without context, and after weve selected five of the standout prospects, further scouting will be done on them in the near future.

Initial data check

Before we begin the analysis, it is essential that we first establish the ground rules and set the metrics correctly.

Academies are generally a great source of talent, but the data on them can be relatively scarce and incomplete.

Well be working with Wyscouts database for Liverpools U16, U18, and U23 teams, as well as the players who are out on loan.

The players will be analysed according to some of the key metrics, such as goal contribution, creativity and ball progression.

It is also important to note that some of the players will inevitably miss out on the shortlist as data on them may be insufficient for a more in-depth comparison.

Similarly, only players with 500 minutes or more will be taken into consideration, as game time can significantly skew the data findings of any kind.

To start this data analysis, we will first be taking a look at the aforementioned key metrics to see which of the players stand out.

The first one is relatively simple and yet highly effective in recognising the best and most effective goal contributors.

The above scatter graph shows us the players goal contribution and their respective expected goal contribution per 90 minutes.

We got this metric by simply combining the goals and assists to get the goal contribution and their expected goals (xG) and expected assists (xA) to get the expected goal contribution.

Immediately, a couple of names s