With the PL season behind us, everyone has their idea of the heroes and villains of the dismal story of our worst PL finish ever. I'm no exception. But it's always useful to check what stats can tell us - sometimes they confirm your ideas, sometimes they contradict them, sometimes they modify your ideas in interesting directions. And now's the time to do that.
This is based on the fbref full scouting reports, limited to PL games. These measure the players performance in each stat against other players in Europe playing in the same position, and give the result as a percentile. Ie, if you're 81 percentile for a certain stat, then you have a better value than 80% of the players in your position.
What I did for each player was note the stats where the player was higher than the 70 percentile, and then those where they were lower than the 30 percentile. This provides a picture of the areas in which they were either very good (in the top 30%), or very weak (in the bottom 30%).
Some stats measure how good you are at something, others how frequently you do something. Hence the resulting division should be seen as between things a player does well and/or often, and things the player does badly and/or rarely. Whether it's quantity or quality, this says something meaningful about which aspects of the game the player makes a significant contribution to the team, and about which he doesn't.
Important disclaimer: Though I note the overall number of plus stats and minus stats for each player, we shouldn't attach too much importance to that. It's not an objective score, for many reasons. Some areas of the game are much more densely represented in these stats than others. Also, some stats are much more heavily connected to other stats than others - most obviously, passing. If you f.e. have a large number of attempted passes, then that will also be reflected in quite a few other passing stats, pushing up the overall number of strong areas. The overall figure of strong/weak areas aren't nothing, but you really have to look at the whole picture and see what it tells you.
Some stats are given more than once in the reports - I've tried to weed out doubles, but please do let me know if you notice I've missed some and double counted.
Stats in bold are either elite (top five percentiles) or abysmal (bottom five percentiles).
I'll go player by player over a period of time. First out is...
HARRY MAGUIRE
Report: Harry Maguire Scouting Report for 2023-2024 Premier League | FBref.com
Above 70 stats: 36 (goals, assists, non-penalty goals, xg, npxg, xag, progressive carries, progressive passes, shots, goals/shot on target, passes completed (long), passes attempted (long), dead ball passes, passes from free kicks, switches, passes blocked, shot-creating actions, SCA through live ball passes, SCA through fouls drawn, SCA through defensive action, goal-creating actions, GCA through shots, GCA through fouls drawn, blocks, shots blocked, interceptions, touches (defensive pa), touches (att pa), total carrying distance, progressive carrying distance, carries into PA, dispossessed, PK won, aerials won, % of aerials won, aerials lost)
Below 30 stats: 14 (offsides, fouls committed, progressive passes received, tackled during take-on %, successful take-on %, successful take-ons, take-ons attempted, tackles (att third), tackles (def 3rd), tackles, throw-ins taken, through balls, crosses into pa, shots on target %)
Starting point assessment: Had a solid, much improved season, helped by EtHs tendency to play a low line and back up into a deep, compact shape defensively, which let him play to his strengths.
What say the stats? I think they largely confirm that view. You see a player with strong values in things like interceptions, blocks and aerial play.
But there are a couple of surprises here. Firstly, his offensive stats, which is the area of his game that really stands out as the one where he made a big contribution (and remember, this is relative to other CBs).
On the other hand, his relatively weak values in tackling, which he did rarely and not particularly well.
His passing game also comes across as a strength - especially long passes, progressive passes and switches. His only notable weakness in this area is a dearth of through balls - the overall impression being of a quality passer, but one who tends to stick to safe options.
His stats related to ball carrying are interesting. He's strong in many important ones - progressive carries, touches in the defensive and attacking thirds, progressive and general carrying distance, dispossession and carries into the penalty area. This seems to amount to a substantial impact in processing the ball across the whole pitch. A notable and obvious limitation however is the ability for take-ons, which he rarely does, and does badly when he does. No surprises there.
It's generally important to look for red flags among the weak stats - in many cases, that's where you find the things that balance a picture that might otherwise look more rosy than it is. But I don't see anything particularly damning there in this case, except perhaps his propensity to concede fouls. But then of course, some of his more notable limitations - above all the lack of speed and quickness - are not expressed in the stats (although many of the results of that are).
Overall, I think both eye test and stats speak of a player who largely re-established himself as a strong team player after two dismal seasons, and a significant contributor in possession generally, as well as to both our attack and defensive play in our own third. There's a lot to like here. The question going forward is how dependent he is on a style of play that suits him, and conversely how much his limitations also limit the way the team can play.
This is based on the fbref full scouting reports, limited to PL games. These measure the players performance in each stat against other players in Europe playing in the same position, and give the result as a percentile. Ie, if you're 81 percentile for a certain stat, then you have a better value than 80% of the players in your position.
What I did for each player was note the stats where the player was higher than the 70 percentile, and then those where they were lower than the 30 percentile. This provides a picture of the areas in which they were either very good (in the top 30%), or very weak (in the bottom 30%).
Some stats measure how good you are at something, others how frequently you do something. Hence the resulting division should be seen as between things a player does well and/or often, and things the player does badly and/or rarely. Whether it's quantity or quality, this says something meaningful about which aspects of the game the player makes a significant contribution to the team, and about which he doesn't.
Important disclaimer: Though I note the overall number of plus stats and minus stats for each player, we shouldn't attach too much importance to that. It's not an objective score, for many reasons. Some areas of the game are much more densely represented in these stats than others. Also, some stats are much more heavily connected to other stats than others - most obviously, passing. If you f.e. have a large number of attempted passes, then that will also be reflected in quite a few other passing stats, pushing up the overall number of strong areas. The overall figure of strong/weak areas aren't nothing, but you really have to look at the whole picture and see what it tells you.
Some stats are given more than once in the reports - I've tried to weed out doubles, but please do let me know if you notice I've missed some and double counted.
Stats in bold are either elite (top five percentiles) or abysmal (bottom five percentiles).
I'll go player by player over a period of time. First out is...
HARRY MAGUIRE
Report: Harry Maguire Scouting Report for 2023-2024 Premier League | FBref.com
Above 70 stats: 36 (goals, assists, non-penalty goals, xg, npxg, xag, progressive carries, progressive passes, shots, goals/shot on target, passes completed (long), passes attempted (long), dead ball passes, passes from free kicks, switches, passes blocked, shot-creating actions, SCA through live ball passes, SCA through fouls drawn, SCA through defensive action, goal-creating actions, GCA through shots, GCA through fouls drawn, blocks, shots blocked, interceptions, touches (defensive pa), touches (att pa), total carrying distance, progressive carrying distance, carries into PA, dispossessed, PK won, aerials won, % of aerials won, aerials lost)
Below 30 stats: 14 (offsides, fouls committed, progressive passes received, tackled during take-on %, successful take-on %, successful take-ons, take-ons attempted, tackles (att third), tackles (def 3rd), tackles, throw-ins taken, through balls, crosses into pa, shots on target %)
Starting point assessment: Had a solid, much improved season, helped by EtHs tendency to play a low line and back up into a deep, compact shape defensively, which let him play to his strengths.
What say the stats? I think they largely confirm that view. You see a player with strong values in things like interceptions, blocks and aerial play.
But there are a couple of surprises here. Firstly, his offensive stats, which is the area of his game that really stands out as the one where he made a big contribution (and remember, this is relative to other CBs).
On the other hand, his relatively weak values in tackling, which he did rarely and not particularly well.
His passing game also comes across as a strength - especially long passes, progressive passes and switches. His only notable weakness in this area is a dearth of through balls - the overall impression being of a quality passer, but one who tends to stick to safe options.
His stats related to ball carrying are interesting. He's strong in many important ones - progressive carries, touches in the defensive and attacking thirds, progressive and general carrying distance, dispossession and carries into the penalty area. This seems to amount to a substantial impact in processing the ball across the whole pitch. A notable and obvious limitation however is the ability for take-ons, which he rarely does, and does badly when he does. No surprises there.
It's generally important to look for red flags among the weak stats - in many cases, that's where you find the things that balance a picture that might otherwise look more rosy than it is. But I don't see anything particularly damning there in this case, except perhaps his propensity to concede fouls. But then of course, some of his more notable limitations - above all the lack of speed and quickness - are not expressed in the stats (although many of the results of that are).
Overall, I think both eye test and stats speak of a player who largely re-established himself as a strong team player after two dismal seasons, and a significant contributor in possession generally, as well as to both our attack and defensive play in our own third. There's a lot to like here. The question going forward is how dependent he is on a style of play that suits him, and conversely how much his limitations also limit the way the team can play.
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. Stats are great, in their way. I am a fan of Shaw. What a cultured footballer he is, with a great way of slotting in. Left footed left back; was a big loss during the season. Ones I can’t wait to see; Mainoo, Bruno, Rashford… Antony!!
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