Creative Suso reminding Liverpool of his class out in Spain

It is indicative of the faith Brendan Rodgers held in his then 19 year old attacking midfielder Suso that he felt no aversion to handing the Spaniard his Liverpool debut in the hotbed of Manchester United’s visit to Anfield in September of last year. He managed to make a further 13 appearances that season but failed to complete a full 90 minutes in any of them, scoring 0 goals and providing 0 assists. It was proving to be a learning curve that was too steep, too soon.

After initially refusing to allow his teenager to go out on loan, Rodgers reneged as he realised that Suso may have to go abroad to learn.

“Does he actually have to go and play somewhere for a year and get experience?” he asked (according to the report from Express back in March). “Does he need to show he can go and get goals and create goals and then we know what we have?”

In the end, he did and it was Almeria, the newly promoted La Liga outfit, who last summer took him on his learning process.

It is his first time back in Spain since leaving Cadiz CF, his home-town club whom he had been with since joining at the age of 12, in 2010, choosing Liverpool’s academy over Barcelona and Real Madrid after receiving a personal phone call from Rafael Benitez.

“I was going to sign for Real Madrid but one day before it the phone rang and Benitez spoke to me. He convinced me that Liverpool was the club for me and after that I had to change my plans. I was going to come to Liverpool.” quoted by Liverpool’s official website.

He initially joined on loan until he was old enough to obtain a professional deal and on November 19th, as he turned 17, he celebrated by signing his first professional deal.

His rise became immediately prominent, being included in a pre-season friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach and then in Jamie Carragher’s testimonial before being allowed to forego the academy in favour of joining the reserve squad for competitive fixtures. His first season in 2010-2011 was strong, making the joint-highest number appearances with 17 and scoring 3 goals. The following season saw a slight improvement as he netted 5 goals in 17 matches as well as making 7 appearances in the Next-Gen series.

When Brendan Rodgers took over at Anfield he hastily subscribed to his talent by including him in the first-team squad for the pre-season tour of USA and Canada. After linking up with the team just 2 days after winning the under-19 European Championship with Spain, he made his début in the match with Toronto, impressing with clever link-up play and ambitious shooting.

In September 2012 he made his competitive first-team début in the Europa League against Young Boys, leaving Rodgers to wax-lyrical over his performance in which he saw enough to, 3 days later, hand him a substitute appearance in the game against Manchester United. After coming on at half-time for Fabio Borini, he completed all his passes despite the reds being a man down after Jonjo Shelvey’s earlier sending off. His next appearances came against West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup where he came on with 10 minutes to go to set-up Nuri Sahin’s winning goal, then at Norwich, where he made his first league start, assisting Luis Suarez’s third goal in a 2-5 win.

The following month Rodgers rewarded him with a new long-term deal, praising his “maturity and commitment” by saying

“At 18, he has demonstrated outstanding technical qualities but also shown very good temperament to play for such a prestigious club. His commitment is very good news for all our young Academy players and the excellent work taken place by the Academy coaches and staff.”

Unfortunately his progress began to stall after Liverpool signed Daniel Sturridge and Phillipe Coutinho in January, he found his route to the first-team blocked. Back in the under-21s, he turned in a poor performance in a defeat against Manchester United. This led Rodgers to re-think and his eventual decision to send the teenager out on loan.

And so in came Almeria to alter the platform for the player who was faced with the pressure of being a foreign youngster trying to break into an ambitious, expectant first-team at Liverpool. At Almeria, the Andalucians who have spent nothing on players over the last two seasons, he is the main man, the spearhead to their under-dog bid to stay in the Spanish Primera division. It is a fine job he is doing to, as of the international break, Almeria sit clear of the drop zone in 17th after winning their last 3 games. Suso meanwhile sits just behind Koke, Cesc Fabregas and Neymar in the assist charts, registering a respectable 5.

A pass success rate of 74.5% is possibly reflective of playing in a passive side that will struggle, as relative minnows, to stamp their authority on games, though with a huge count of 290 passes attempted, it suggests he isn’t willing to abandon his principles and creative habits of constantly looking to link the play and move the ball forward. A tally of 19 shots attempted is testament to his ambition while, although most of his work is naturally done in the final third, he has contributed greatly to the defensive side of Almeria’s game with 15 tackles and 5 interceptions. After picking up 5 league bookings to rule him out of the side’s most recent win over Osasuna, it indicates he is not just over in Spain for an Andalucian jaunt, but is fully committed to the cause.

An assist on his début against Villarreal was followed by an impressive performance against Getafe and a fine goal from long-range which marked a man-of-the-match display against Levante. 3 assists have come in his last 4 games, including an equaliser in the Mestalla against Valencia and the wonderful cross for Rodri to net the only goal of the game in the 1-0 victory over Valladolid. It has been fine form for a struggling side; only ten players from clubs in the bottom half have created more chances than the 20 year old’s tally of 14 whilst only 6 in the entire league have completed more dribbles than his 28.

His quick-feet, wonderful control of the ball and confidence to take on his full-back that have made him such a threat in wide areas, Francisco Rodriguez trusting him to continuously switch between flank by fielding him on the left 5 times and on the right side of his attack on 4 occasions. His versatility has created a verve of unpredictability and defences have struggled to deal with his touch and vision.

“My position is as a naturally deep-lying forward but I will play wherever the coach wants me – on either wing or in midfield,” said the play-maker upon his arrival in Almeria and it suggests a growing maturity in a player who is beginning to adapt his game to a variety of situations.

Rodgers has said “I think his best position is that number 10 role and we’ll nurture that over the next couple of years,” though his proven ability to be versatile as well as a wealth of first-team experience could speed up that process when he returns to Melwood next summer. Suso is turning into the player that convinced Rodgers that he could be part of the next generation as soon as he took-over at Anfield. The above two quotes taken from this skysports report.

Stats Courtesy of Whoscored and squawka.