Video: Joe Allen v. Liverpool

When it comes to Joe Allen, most will have seen the numbers and read the major talking points: He's accurate, he's quick with the ball at his feet, he provides good movement without it, and above all he's a smart player obviously suited to the brand of football Brendan Rodgers wants to play. Many, though, may not have seen a lot of him last season with Swansea—or if they did, they may not have been paying overmuch attention to him with an eye to how he might look in Liverpool red.

While every-touch compilations may be far from perfect, short of going back to re-watch every moment of a match with the footage from every camera and angle they're about as good as it gets for fans wanting to take another look at player performance after the fact. Certainly they're a massive improvement over the previously prevalent every good thing the player did over forty-eight games set to the latest Autobahn remix highlight reels that many used to pour over when a new player signed.

With that in mind, when looking for video of Joe Allen to help with familiarising those who may not have seen much of him, there seemed an obvious choice: The final match of the last Premier League season, when Rodgers' Swansea went on a victory lap of sorts at the expense of Liverpool. In that game, Allen took on the role most have assumed would end up being Henderson's at Liverpool since he joined last summer, playing as the second, box to box midfielder between Leon Britton and Gylfi Sigurdsson in Rodgers' 4-3-3.

Not every pass was perfection on the day for Allen, but even still his workrate, constant movement, and comfort playing a one-touch passing game seem destined to fit in well with Liverpool's best players and obviously match the approach Rodgers is hoping to install—and would even had Rodgers not previously managed Allen.

So while we've talked before about his stats, about his 91% pass completion rate and about how he would have stood fourth on last year's Liverpool squad in chances created and about how he had an interception rate just shy of Lucas', for those who may not have been paying close attention at the time a glance back at what those numbers look like in action seems in order.