As Stewart Downing arrives at Anfield in a £20m deal,  the fourth major summer for the Reds in the present transfer window behind Jordan Henderson, Charlie Adam and Alexander Doni, he has certainly made it clear he is keen to get on with things.

The former Villa man has featured on both the right and left flanks in his time at Villa, following his £10m move to them from Middlesborough in 2009 after he saw his boyhood team relegated to the Championship.

His likely deployment in the current Liverpool side could again be a varied one, given the midfielders presently at Kenny Dalglish’s disposal but it is the left flank that many Reds believe he is most likely to appear. Both flanks have given Liverpool trouble in recent seasons, with a lack of true width glaringly obvious in the squad depth.  A matter many a fan had hoped would be up there high on the priority list to rectify the moment the transfer window opened.

Downing’s arrival is certainly a step in the right direction to bringing some further balance to the side, an experienced Premier League player and one that put 324 crosses into his Aston Villa team mates last season, a statistic that Liverpool could certainly benefit from and one that shadowed his former fellow wideman Ashley Young.

While Downing is keen to get into the side as quick as possible and prove his worth to Dalglish, Maxi Rodriguez will be hoping to offer up more than enough food for thought of his own after a strong finish to the last campaign, not to mention the small matter of two hat-tricks as the season came to a close.

While Maxi made only 24 starts compared to that of the 38 by Downing in the Premier League, his own stats by ratio do make for some encouraging reading both attacking and defensively.

Come the end of the 2011/12 campaign who will have faired better though?

Take a look at our comparison below:

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Image Source: Liverpoolfc.tv

Data Source: Opta Stats via EPL Index