The Aggregate: Why Liverpool Need Jeremie Frimpong to Step Back in Time

Reported Liverpool target Jeremie Frimpong is a wing-back. A look at his right-back data gives a better idea as to why the Reds are interested.

Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong is being heavily linked with a move to Liverpool this summer. He’s 24, Dutch and has a release clause in his contract. If he’s not ticking boxes in Richard Hughes’ recruitment office, nobody is.

The right-back market is not strong at present either. Nineteen-year-old midfielder Archie Gray is the joint-eighth highest valued player in the position according to Transfermarkt, which says everything about who is out there.

Frimpong makes for a fascinating option as we continue to figure out how the Reds will replace in The Aggregate what they lose through Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure.

The Bayer man is in the bottom three per cent of full-backs in the big five leagues for progressive passes over the past year, which is a key metric towards recreating the influence of number 66. It’s an immediate red flag.

As Opta Analyst recently noted, Frimpong is “far more wing than back, as you can see from his heat map below.” Even so, he only moves up to the sixth percentile for progressive passing among attacking midfielders and wingers. It hasn’t been part of his game under Xabi Alonso when it may be vital for Arne Slot.

An important factor which often gets forgotten when looking at player statistics is that they merely illustrate what someone has done, not what they can do.

Josh Williams has written on Distance Covered this week that he could picture Frimpong as a full-back in the tweaked tactical set up Slot deployed against Arsenal. This is indirectly a vital consideration in our search too; we think we know Slot’s Liverpool, but we don’t really. It’s far too early.

Give the Reds’ head coach a full pre-season plus a few players signed to his requirements to see what unfolds. The chances are he cooks up a masterpiece.

Jürgen Klopp used several formations as he experimented in 2015/16, then largely stuck to a 4-3-3 system thereafter. He signed Sadio Mané to add pace to the attack in his first summer, immediately making the team better. Maybe Slot is working along similar lines with Frimpong? Because make no mistake, he can fly.