EDIT - BUGGER! Someone already made a thread on this. Well, I went into a bit of detail and posed a question. Sue me. So I was on the BBC Sport website just now (raging over the news that John Terry is going to Euro 2012) and I saw this new blog piece on key player stats this season. Obviously it's not surprising to see more great passing statistics for us: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thefootballtacticsblog/2012/05/you_will_probably_know_that.html#more Here's the key Swans ones, although I'm going first with a particularly important stat relating to Mark Gower; this season he was the 5th most accurate crosser in the Premier League (out of those who have made a minimum of 30 crosses). Do you guys think this means we should possibly give him more playing time, seeing as we sometimes have difficulty getting crosses in, or is this stat just reflecting a bit of luck over a small number of appearances? Norwich have been particularly succesful with crossing this season, although that is perhaps because of The Dolt and Morison up front. (Those who think the Dolt is a clean player, he's made more fouls than anyone else in the PL this season according to Opta Joe: 89.) The next Stoke, or are they better than that? Here are the other key Swansea stats: ASHLEY WILLIAMS was the top passer in the Premier League this season with 2594 passes. 4 of the top 10 passers are Swansea players, with Angel Rangel in 5th on 2273, Leon Britton in 6th with 2258, and Joe Allen 10th with 2177. Leon Britton is the most accurate passer in the Premier League - and one of the most accurate in Europe. Ashley Williams is top of the pile again for shot blocking, having come top of the charts for blocking shots this season. Angel Rangel is 4th for interceptions, at 95. I'm surprised by how good he has been statistically; I thought Taylor was better this season. Maybe I haven't been paying attention enough when I manage to get a stream! Perhaps dissapointingly and rather surprisingly Michel Vorm is not in the top 10 keepers by how often goals are conceded on average. Regardless, he's been fantastic this season. I can't find the link to the full list of statistics in this article, so if someone finds it please post it here so myself and others can look at it more in depth. One final stat from the Opta Joe twitter feed from a few days ago, I'll leave it up to you guys to tell whether this is indicative of our good build up play or not creating enough chances: Swansea have made an average of 62 passes per shot attempted in the PL this season, 17 more than any other team, with Fulham being the next best at 45.
To answer your 1 question, Mark Gower ..... no no no. He can happily retire on the headline in 'The Mail' early season making him the most creative player in Europe and good luck to him (i'd love to have had a spread on me like that!) Lies, lies and damn statistics buddy. The less games played the larger the deviation.... check out his later performances / how the Swans faired when he came on.
Yeah, just noticed. I was surprised by that Gower stat. Still he hasn't played a lot this season and I wonder if he's just been a bit fortunate in that respect because Sinclair and Dyer are obviously much better.
Gower still led the team with most assists with 5 , and in only 14 starts ... say what you want but more than one stat pointing at success for a player , means it's warranted . We would be foolish to cut Gower's ability to " Step in " when need be ... Same with Monk's 5 clean sheets in 14 games .. Enjoyed the read Cherry Jack !
Dyer and Sinclair are wide men who cut in. Gower's a midfielder converted from winger, who would float out to deliver a cross but would often frustrate. His set ball pieces would be a mare at times. Saying that, he did deliver a few killer balls at the start of the season .... but the midfield balance became better once Leon/Joe/Gylfi happened. Do you swap a fit Leon/Joe for Gower in the starting line up..... never thanks for sharing Cherry
But Gower was also taking a lot of corners too. Were they taken into account? What's classed as accurate? crossing within 2 yards of the target player?
Free kicks and corners, I think, made up a couple of his assists, and helped with the "chance creation" stat everyone was banging on about earlier in the season.
This was very interesting to see: Michel Vorm does have the best penalty save ratio though as he has saved 66.66% of the penalties he has faced this season. This is 16.6% better than Howard and 33.33% better than both Hart and De Gea. Vorm has also made the joint highest amount of high cross catches with Cech, as they both have caught 59 balls from high crosses this season. This is 2 more crosses than Foster, 3 more than Krul and 22 more than Hart. Vorm has only missed one cross this season, which is one fewer than Al-Habsi and 2 fewer than Hart, Krul, Cech and Ruddy. And you all thought he wasn't good at dealing with crosses
Defo surprised me so well done, Vorm. BUT, something nags at the back of my mind. Going away for a few days so I will mull it over and come back on it. Still impressive, though.
Vorm has been spectacular this season. Not sure where the criticism about cross interception has come from, he's seemed pretty good at commanding his area and taking balls in all season.
Cherry, I disagree on the commanding his area part. This is his greatest downfall. Whenever you watch another goalkeeper, you will always see him shouting and waving arms around, telling his players what to do. Now, Vorm doesn't always do this. Sometimes he will, bu more often than not, he will keep quiet and then deal with whatever threat comes along.
I think i've used the term wrongly there. I was thinking more along the lines of being able to get about his box more...which would be positioning. I get your point though - maybe something for him to improve on?
Always though some of the criticism aimed at Vorm's ability to command the box was unwarranted & still do . Seems well balanced all round . If there is one thing that I've noticed is sometimes he can be a little careless during a play with little importance
Ash he may have had one or two bad games, but lets be honest, Vorm is the outstanding player of the season, and up there with the very best, he didn't collect those awards for nothing!............
