Underlap, Overlap, Kerkez Runs Free

Viva la Womble

I guested on Distance Covered’s podcast about Diogo Jota earlier this week, which is free to listen to here. I felt better for doing it, plus it now feels easier to write about other stuff. Jots forever.

Milos Kerkez can run. He can run hard, he can run fast, he can run inside and he can run out. Eat your heart out, Forrest Gump.

It makes him very difficult for opposition right-backs to track. Is he going to move outside his winger or inside, drag you away from your centre-back or force you onto their toes? The power of movement, incarnate.

Exactly how many overlapping or underlapping runs Kerkez completed in 2024/25 is hard to say without access to the data. A Sky Sports article in April gave his figures as 182 and 116 respectively, whereas Opta Analyst went with 66 and 52 last month.

Both sources stated he was near the top of the Premier League rankings regardless. Perhaps the figures differ thanks to whether he received a pass following the run or not? Whatever; the boy is a winger’s dream, an opposing full-back’s nightmare.

Alex Smith of the Bournemouth Daily Echo highlighted this when he spoke to Liverpool’s official website once the Kerkez deal had been completed. “His overlapping runs were vital in overloading the opposition's half in transition and his final delivery was potent,” he said.

Smith also gave an example of this with reference to “his assist for David Brooks' Goal of the Season nominee against Everton.” You can see what he means here.

A Bluesky post by Head of Opta Data Editorial ‘Orbinho’ was also eye-catching on this subject because it showed the leading performances for overlapping runs in 2024/25. Kerkez features twice, as do Lewis Hall, Tino Livramento and Ben White. Strangely, only one of the 10 examples occurred in a home game.

One of them was unlike the other nine in different ways. It was against a side that finished above eighth in the table, delivered when facing one of England’s established big six clubs.

Kerkez at Anfield.

Nobody else earned their place on the list when their team saw as little of the ball. The same is true for the five examples of six or more overlapping runs, thanks to the Hungarian’s efforts at Brentford.

As the outlier occurred against the side for whom Kerkez has now signed, it is worth reviewing the match in full to see what happened, what came of his runs and whether his inside or outside movement made Liverpool pay. Let’s look at some clips.

The Reds won 3-0, so Kerkez’s runs clearly didn’t result in goals. Perhaps they might have if his teammates chose to use him as their outlet.

In reviewing the video, I found three examples that I was pretty certain would’ve been deemed to be overlaps by Opta. The first two were fairly similar, with the earlier instance less than a minute before Darwin Núñez scored a cracking goal to end the game as a contest.

While Trent Alexander-Arnold was tracking Kerkez well in Exhibit A, the Cherries’ left-back would’ve probably won a corner had he received the ball back from Justin Kluivert. As it was, the man in possession opted to deliver a cross-cum-shot-cum-waste-of-a-good-position instead.

The Reds’ new defender was at it again in a near-identical position with a near-identical outcome eight minutes later. It was James Tavernier whom Kerkez overlapped on this occasion, except this time the attempted cross was blocked by Dominik Szoboszlai.

Kerkez was presumably hoping to pull the ball back from the byline into the centre of the penalty area. Arne Slot named cutbacks as one of his “four very effective ways to score” way back when he was coaching at Cambuur Leeuwarden. We can assume his new left-back will aim to deliver in this way.

The Bournemouth defender then showed his pace in a counter attack midway through the second half. Ignoring Kerkez finally resulted in a cross into the centre of the box (via Dango Ouattara), though Virgil van Dijk dealt with it with predictable ease. With the Liverpool defence not set, this was the most wasted overlap of the three.

I found multiple inconclusive examples of what might have been the other two outside runs which Opta recorded for Kerkez in the match.

One was conducted at such a leisurely pace that to call it a run would be doing runners a disservice. Another saw Kerkez speed past the player with the ball but they chose to pass backwards, so does that count?

Here are some other borderline or not-quite cases, beginning with one where the Bournemouth number three didn’t get significantly past Ouattara before he carried the ball into the box.

This next clip is unlikely to be an overlap as the ball was released before Kerkez advanced ahead of Luis Sinisterra. However, he was at least able to create a chance thanks to his outside movement in this instance.

The final example shows a good use of the 21-year-old’s speed. He intercepted a pass then looked to play a one-two. When the ball wasn’t returned, Kerkez threw up his arms a little in understandable frustration.

Overlapping runs carry an element of the lottery about them. Kerkez bought plenty of tickets at Anfield without his numbers coming up to any great effect.

His underlaps were closer to proving effective. Despite little support in the box, Kerkez was able to win a corner in the first example below. He then received the ball from a player who was adjudged offside in the second clip, but it’s easy to see how he could create a big chance in a similar situation.

Slot had figured out a solution to counteract Kerkez’s movement by the time Liverpool visited the Vitality Stadium. He deployed Ryan Gravenberch further right than usual to provide cover on Bournemouth’s left.

“It's clear that if you leave Trent constantly with [Antoine] Semenyo and Kerkez constantly in a two-v-one, that is not the best idea that I can come up with,” Slot said afterwards. Josh Williams did a deeper analysis of this tactical tweak over on Distance Covered which is worth checking out.

Opposition managers will continue to try to solve this problem. Not everyone has a player of Gravenberch’s ability to fulfil the task though. While Liverpool won’t have bought Kerkez purely on his display at Anfield, he showed why Reds fans should be very excited about his potential.