A look at Kilmarnock's unsung midfielder: Liam Polworth

There aren’t many things Kilmarnock fans will find themselves thanking Tommy Wright for. Aside from beating Ayr twice, the highlights during the Northern Irishman’s tenure at Rugby Park were scarce. His recruitment has proven to be a strong point of his skillset, though. The likes of Danny Armstrong and Brad Lyons turned out to be brilliant captures, with the benefit of hindsight. Another player who was signed by the ex-St Johnstone boss was Liam Polworth – and he is the focus of this week’s ramblings.

Reflecting back on that season in the Championship, it’s hard to believe – baffling almost – that Polworth was so out of the picture that a half-season loan spell at Dunfermline was on his remit. Derek McInnes had a decent chance to look at the former Inverness and Motherwell midfielder, but still, despite his pedigree, he was farmed out to East End Park, where he was part of the team that was relegated via the play-offs.

Who doesn’t love a redemption arc, though? Polworth’s return to the first-team fold after that particular sequence of events was surprising, to say the least. Everything indicated that he would move on to pastures new just a year into his initial two-year contract, with his number change from 19 to 31 perhaps the biggest tell-tale sign that things wouldn’t work out. After a solid contribution last season, with two goals and four assists across his 34 appearances, he earned a further year contract in Ayrshire. Thank god he did, because he’s been pivotal to Killie’s upturn in form this term compared to last.

Now, a mere three assists wouldn’t exactly suggest that on the face of it. However, anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to the exploits of McInnes’ side and their rise to the standing of Scotland’s fourth-best team this season, will know how impressive Polworth has been, particularly in the second half of the campaign. He’s missed just one game since November, becoming a regular feature in the starting XI from the 2-1 victory over Celtic on December 10. It was a slow start to the 2023/24 campaign mind you – he didn’t get off the bench for the first five games, and only really properly broke into the team in mid-October when he started against Livingston at Rugby Park.

His impact since then has been immense. Taking a deeper look at his statistics, this is where his worth to the team shines through. It’s time to revisit my favourite stat – which I’ve touched upon in one of my earliest entries – On-Ball-Value. Essentially, it's a process that looks to assign a value to each action that takes place on the football pitch based on the positive or negative impact the action has on a team's likelihood of scoring and conceding. Polworth has the second highest in the team, only behind – you guessed it – Armstrong. So, this shows that his actions tend to lead to more positive outcomes, rather than negatives. Ultimately, it would be daft not to play him with his consistency in the middle of the park. He is closely followed by David Watson in third on that list.

Polworth has the highest deep progressions in the squad. This accounts for passes and carries (dribbles) into the final third of the pitch. Padding this out, he has the highest open play final third passes (12.27), and the highest pass percentage in the team with 80. This tells us that he’s capable of progressing the ball during attacking moves, even though he’s holding on to it the most frequently, as the stat about deep progressions pinpoints. His interception rate isn’t outstanding at just 0.73, however, with Liam Donnelly, Watson and Lyons all above a score of 1 in that category, he can be forgiven for lacking in that regard.

READ MORE: Four Kilmarnock Player of the Year nominees assessed

I’m conscious of boring those of you who are either not too familiar with statistical-based pieces about football or uninterested in them – maybe both – but another couple that are worth highlighting is that he boasts the third-highest key passes (chances created for his teammates) for Killie, with Armstrong and Matty Kennedy rightly coming out on top as McInnes’ go-to creative outlets. And finally, in relation to that last point, he has the second-highest xG assisted, which correlates to the value of direct shots he creates for his teammates in blue & white stripes.

The numbers are just part of modern-day football. We all know that some pin too much importance on that side of the game, rather than just watching what they see with their own eyes. He is clearly a classy player with an abundance of technical ability, most observers would arrive at that conclusion. He certainly doesn’t shirk his defensive responsibilities either. However, I think some of those stats do show the underlying importance of Polworth’s contribution to what has been a season to remember so far. With over 1,700 minutes on the pitch this season, distinguishing him as anything other than a key player is a misrepresentation of the significant impact he has in the way McInnes wants the team to play.

We’re now just over a month away from when Polworth’s contract will expire at the end of May, along with a few other players. If Killie are to continue riding the crest of a wave and build on a successful season, then securing him on another deal is essential. Let’s hope the next social media teaser from the club is to announce a new contract for the 29-year-old.