Mkhitaryan vs Eriksen: Champions League Showdown

I recently wrote a piece which looked at the Champions League stats of Liverpool target Henrikh Mkhitaryan (and you can read it here), but it only had figures from this season.

Following publication of the article, I received several requests for Christian Eriksen's stats, as he is also rumoured to be on Brendan Rodgers' radar, and supposedly cheaper to boot (at £15m, compared to £25m for his Armenian counterpart).

Thanks to a tip-off from Dan Kennett, I have located and compiled the figures from Champions League football for both players for the last three seasons. It's still a small sample, but hopefully it might add a little something to the transfer debate.

Attacking

Eriksen has the edge on both shot conversion and frequency of chance creation.

Defence

Mkhitaryan appears better in the air, and gets involved far more with tackles and interceptions. As I noted in my last piece though, he does get dribbled past a lot, which hasn't happened so much to Eriksen.

Passing & Possession

The duo have a similar pass accuracy overall, and lose possession at essentially the same rate. Eriksen attempts passes more frequently, and has been more accurate with his crossing, whilst Mkhitaryan has found a teammate with a higher proportion of his long passes. Neither player attempts through balls too often, but for the record Eriksen has the edge.

Having never seen either player in action, based purely on the stats and the supposed transfer fees, I'd go for Eriksen. Who do you prefer?

Update:

As per the first comment below, it's only fair to show which teams the two players played.

Related posts you might like:

Why Do Liverpool Need Mkhitaryan? - I know nothing about the player so checked his stats. They don't make for pretty reading...

Iago Aspas: Shots and Creativity – The Reds’ new boy’s stats from La Liga compare well with the Premier League’s elite.

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