by Nameless »
23 Jul 2019 08:31
Snowflake Royal Wycombe Royal Snowflake Royal FYI, on an objective check, dispossessed per game stats for our midfielders last season:
Ejaria - 1.8
Meyler - 1.8
Swift - 1.6
Bacuna - 1.2
Rinomhota - 0.8
Kelly - 0.7
Baker - 0.6
Ezatolahi - 0.5
Olise (
) - 0.3
East - 0
Unsuccessful touches per game:
Swift - 2.2
Ezatolahi - 2
Ejaria - 1.9
Rinomhota - 1.3
Baker - 1.3
Olise - 1.3
Bacuna - 1.2
East - 1
Meyler - 0.8
Kelly - 0.6
It's objectively not true really isn't it Wycombe.
If you went purely on stats Kelly would be first name on the team sheet for central midfield and Rino would be on the bench. But for those that live in the real world and not on FM/FIFA stats we know that is objectively not true.
I mean, this is wrong on so many levels Wycombe.
I've never advocated picking players solely on stats. I've always said they're only part of the picture. Rinomhota is actually better than Kelly in the stats based system of Whoscored.com based on last year. Rino would be pretty much my first name on the team sheet.
But you suggested Kelly dwelt on the ball losing it a lot. That's an objective claim, which those objective stats don't support. An do you know why I checked them? Because having watched Kelly play numerous times, I thought he was a player who lost the ball rarely.
Plenty of reasons to criticise Kelly without making up false ones.
Genuine question - how is ‘unsuccessful touches’ an objective statistic ? It involves a third party trying to guess what a player is trying to do. It’s subjective.
It also doesn’t consider whether the player was trying a brilliant touch which just failed or absolutely messed up a simple effort. It doesn’t consider whether the player had been stitched up by a poor pass, whether the touch was in a dangerous area or whether a rubbish touch happened to fall to a team mate rather than opponent.
I’m sure there is huge science behind it, but I remain sceptical.
The numbers quoted also seem to ignore a basic principle of having a decent sample size. East hasn’t even played a full game and hardly got a touch in the game he played. Meyler has barely played and I would suggest 0.8 touches represents his entire contribution rather than an average.
