Football supporters of a certain (middle) age may well remember the Rumbelows Sprint Challenge. In 1992, the electrical retailer and then sponsor of the League Cup ran a competition to find English football’s fastest runner over 100 yards.
Liverpool’s Mark Walters didn’t make it through to the final (which took place at Wembley ahead of the Rumbelows Cup final between Manchester United and Nottingham Forest), so it was Swansea’s John Williams (a.k.a. ‘the flying postman’) who won the race to earn £10,000 and a new TV. It was a very different time.
As fun as it would be to bring back, such a contest would never happen in the present day. However, in 2022 we have data on player’s running in Premier League matches to at least be able to estimate who might have won the Carabao Sprint Challenge this season. We can be far more scientific than simply relying upon the ratings from FIFA 22 too.
READ MORE: Julian Ward is leading Liverpool into new transfer market and two signings are proof
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp has just hinted at crucial Jordan Henderson job when Liverpool pre-season begins
According to the numbers which were recently shared on Sky Sports, Antonio Rudiger recorded a top speed of 36.72 kilometres per hour, the fastest any player managed in the English top flight in 2021/22. Mohamed Salah was joint-second, only a shade behind at 36.64kmh, and having clocked 36.21km/h Ibrahima Konate was also in the Premier League’s top five.
However, in an actual match, footballers don’t have to run the length of the Wembley pitch as they did in the sprint challenge 30 years ago. Being fast obviously helps a player but being able to repeatedly run at high speed is of greater practical use than recording the fastest single sprint in a match.
And there are few managers to whom this matters more than Jurgen Klopp. As his assistant Pep Lijnders once noted when discussing the hallmarks of the side, “our identity is intensity.” The sprint statistics back this up, with the Reds recording 5,277 runs of at least seven metres per second in the league this season. Norwich (5,285) and Leeds (a scarcely credible 6,495) were the only teams to better that total, and they had much lower possession figures than Liverpool so will have hared around without the ball far more often.
Where the Reds had two of the five players for fastest speed, they didn’t have any in the leading quintet for total sprints recorded. What they did have was some of the top players for consistency, the men with the highest average of sprints per 90 minutes played.
There were 82 outfielders who featured for at least 2,500 minutes in the Premier League this season, and Andy Robertson averaged the second most sprints of any of them (with 23.3 per 90). With plenty of time remaining for transfers to be completed this summer, it’s interesting that reported Liverpool target Raphinha led the way, on 27.1 per 90. If Klopp is looking for further intensity, he could do a lot worse than adding the Brazilian to his roster.
But among players already within the Reds’ squad, Robertson was top this term. The only defender with a higher figure and more than 270 minutes played was Brighton’s Tariq Lamptey, and only three players who were aged at least 27 at the start of the campaign in any position (with a decent sample size) averaged more sprints.
Other Liverpool veterans fared well too. Five of the top 17 players who were 29-or-older when 2021/22 got underway were Liverpool men, with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah in the top four and Jordan Henderson, Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk also among the leading group.
Any cynical rival fans will roll their eyes at the findings, with Liverpool’s remarkable physical efforts often the subject of bizarre conspiracy theories online. In reality, their work with advanced injury prevention specialists Zone7 is far more likely the source of their supreme fitness.
Having arguably the club’s strongest ever squad aids the process too. Robertson played fewer minutes in 2021/22 than in any of the three preceding seasons as his manager could call upon excellent back up Kostas Tsimikas when required. After all their years together and with countless miles on the clock, Liverpool’s players have still got the intensity which Klopp requires for his team’s identity.
READ NEXT
- Chelsea might have just put Liverpool's perfect Mohamed Salah replacement up for sale
- Thiago Alcantara names Liverpool team-mate as 'one of the best midfield players I’ve played with'
- Jurgen Klopp has already strengthened his Liverpool midfield this summer without anyone realising
- Liverpool should take advantage of familiar contract problem to sign boyhood Arsenal fan
- Alan Shearer 'certain' about Liverpool signing as Man City message sent
