Thomas Partey’s brilliant display in Atletico Madrid’s 1-0 win over Liverpool is the talk of town today.
The Ghanaian midfielder put in a truly dominant display as Atleti set up a mouthwatering second-leg match at Anfield.
Although he missed out on the official Man of The Match Award to teammate Renan Lodi, a number of people felt that it would not have been surprising if Partey had been given the prize instead.
And looking at his stats from the game, it’s hard to argue with that idea.
Passes
Partey usually a decent passer of the ball, made 72 percent of his 36 passes against Liverpool. Overall he had 53 touches. He also made two key passes and launched seven long balls forward, finding his teammate with three of those. At least one of the three that didn’t find their mark initially still caused the Reds defence issues, with one, in particular, leading to a good chance for Alvaro Morata.
Passes – 36
Pass success – 72%
Key passes – 2
Touches – 53
Long Balls – 7
Accurate long balls – 3
Dribbles
Partey is not known as a prolific dribbler but he has bursts where he absolutely flies past markers. Against Liverpool, he attempted two dribbles and was successful with both.
Dribbles attempted – 2
Dribble success – 100%
Aerial duels
Partey put all 1.82 m of his frame to good use on Tuesday winning all three of the aerial duels he contested last night. Nothing went past him in the air at the Wanda Metropolitano.
Aerial duels contested – 3
Aerial duels won – 100%
Tackles
With the skies so well-protected by the Ghanaian in midfield, Liverpool would have been hoping for an easier time on the ground.
However, the tenacious Partey was in no mood to let them have it.
Of the six tackles he attempted on Tuesday night, he was successful with five of them. He made no errors and, despite his tough tackling, committed no fouls.
He also managed one interception.
Tackles attempted – 6
Tackles won – 5
Tackle success – 83%
Recoveries – 13
Errors – 0
Fouls – 0
Interceptions – 1
Shots
Shooting was certainly the weakest aspect of Partey’s game last night. He has been known to smack them in from different ranges over the course of his career but his shooting boots took a break on Tuesday.
He took three shots against Liverpool but failed to hit the target with any of them