This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Liverpool’s decision to offload Dominic Solanke in January for a whopping £19m is already looking like an absolute masterstroke from the club.
Sporting director Michael Edwards has overseen the arrivals of players like Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker, and has helped transform the club during Jurgen Klopp’s tenure.
His work in sending players the opposite direction is just as impressive though, and Solanke may just be his finest piece of business yet.
While the England international is still just 22 years of age and so has time to develop, his impact since joining Bournemouth has been almost non-existent.
After grabbing just one assist for the Cherries last term, he has played seven times in the league this season, and has no goals and no assists, per WhoScored.
His underlying numbers make for even more worrying reading, as he boasts just 1.4 shots per game, 0.4 key passes per game and 0.6 dribbles per game, while also completing a truly horrific 69% of his passes.
It’s not as if his team aren’t creating an environment for strikers to succeed either. Callum Wilson has five goals and completes a vastly superior 1.4 key passes per game, while Josh King has managed two goals, two assists and a whopping three dribbles per game.
And if King is the dribbler and Wilson is the creator out of their forward options, then surely Solanke is the aerial threat, right? Wrong. King also wins more aerial duels than his English counterpart (3.7 to 2.9).
Quite simply, Solanke is not making an impact in any area of the game, is massively inferior to the other striking options in front of him and is showing no signs of moving up in the pecking order.
£26m for Mamadou Sakho was good business for the Reds, but the Frenchman is a Crystal Palace regular and arguably still a solid player. £20m for Danny Ings was more good business, but he certainly knows where the back of the net is, grabbing 12 goals for the Saints since joining, and even Jordon Ibe for £15m doesn’t look that ridiculous considering he has five goals and nine assists at the Vitality Stadium.
With just one assist and no goals in 19 games for his new club in all competitions though, Solanke’s departure takes the cake.
If the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, then the greatest trick Edwards ever pulled was convincing Bournemouth that Solanke is worth £19m.