Vito Mannone. On first Glance one could be forgiven for believing that Vito had a torrid time yesterday as WBA whipped in numerous high aimless balls into danger area. West Brom clearly trying to make life difficult for one of the shorter goalkeepers in the Premier League as they abandoned any real plan to pick out out a man and instead grouped players round Vito launching in one up and under cross after another, fortunately of the 30 WBA crosses most were too long. But they certainly made Vito work for 90 minutes. Of the 7 times Vito was called into action he successfully dealt with 87% of his incidents. 2 headed duels, 3 saves and 1 punch. 1 failed catch being the only mark against his record. Vito will no doubt mostly remember his day for being bashed about needlessly and pointlessly by a physical West West please log in to view this image John O'shea. An accomplished performance from the skipper winning 100% of his tackles and areal duels. With 2 interceptions and 7 clearances It was an assured display from O'Shea. A passing success of just 72% highlights that despite a full pre season under Gus playing his new system, you still can't teach an old dog new tricks. His discomfort on the ball is something that we're going to accept for the remainder of his Sunderland career. Good Game from O'Shea. please log in to view this image Wes Brown. What a fantastic footballer, one can only imagine how good he could have become had his career not been blighted with injuries. The Stats stack up much like JoS' as they both defended with class. Wes also scored 100% of his tackles and area duals. With 1 interception and 3 clearances. A passing score of 74% doesn't tell the whole story as a switch to an unfamiliar right back brought his pass completion down as he played some teasing balls down the right hand side which were unlucky not to come off. Definitely a performance best viewed on the pitch rather than the stats as Wes showed his class once again. please log in to view this image Valentin Roberge. Well Roberge had a nightmare as we already know with a tackle success of just 67%. A right back he is not, he was then switched to centre back but faired no better. As you'd expect the one area where Roberge usually excels proved to be his strong point yet again with a very impressive 87% makes you wonder, is he a CM in disguise? please log in to view this image Patrick van Aanholt. We saw the best and worst of Patrick on his Sunderland début. Aanholt scored a poor 33% on tackles and stopped tracking his man for the second goal showing defensive weakness is very apparent, an area he will need work on. Despite this there were some encouraging defensive stats. 8 interceptions, 9 clearances and 2 blocks mostly from his defensive position shows in the most part he was a pretty safe right back. please log in to view this image Going forward and in general play it's pretty clear we've got a talent on our hands, an assist on his début combined with a fine pass percentage of 89% shows what a competent young attcking full back he is. please log in to view this image Lee Cattermole. Who is this man? This is a Catts that shoots and scores, this is a catts who sprays passes about, this is a Catts who stays on his feet, and for good reason. Cattermole committed himself to just 6 tackles all game showing he's certainly learning to stay on his feet. Just as well as his 6 tackles brought mixed results with two successful, two unsuccessful and two drawing fouls. However, it's his passing which drew the most attention, well apart from the screaming piledriver that flew into the top corner. He completed an exceptional 93% of his passes, completing 24 passes with just two going a stray. please log in to view this image Seb Larrson. Solid display from Seb achieving a very good 83% pass success rate. Won most of his tackles with 60% and won 67% aerial duels. Capped of a fine move with a goal. However, 0 interceptions, just 2 clearances and areas covered on his heat map shows he could maybe do a bit more defensively, especially when losing the midfield battle like yesterday. please log in to view this image Jack Rodwell. Not the best début from Jack, never really did what he does best. An average pass success rate of 76%, making only 17 passes in his time on the pitch combined with him only getting involved with one aerial duel and just one tackle in the entire game(both of which he won) we hope to see a lot more from Jack in the coming weeks. please log in to view this image Adam Johnson. Struggled to get involved in attacks, forced deeper than he'd like. Though a respectable pass success rate of 77% just 2 crosses and 2 take ons in his 70 minutes on the pitch shows a poor day at the office from AJ. please log in to view this image Connor Wickham. Connor struggled on the flanks yesterday and put in a very disappointing performance. A pass success rate of a pitiful 53% and only attempting 15 passes in total just isn't good enough. Just two take ons, no chances created and a wasted volley he should have scored shows he just wasn't involved enough and when involved just wasn't good enough. please log in to view this image Steven Fletcher. 0 shots, 71% pass success rate, 0 take ons, 0 crosses, 0 tackles, 1 interception and just 1 chance created. He only won 40% of his aerial duels which was limited to just 5 attempts to win the ball. Less said the better. please log in to view this image Jordi Gómez. Excellent début cameo from Gómez. In his short time on the pitch he dispatch a very impressive 15 passes, just one less than Connor managed in the whole 90 minutes. In addition to his 81% pass success rate, he also pitched in with a key pass, 2 clearances and an interceptions to complete a very busy 22 minutes on the pitch. please log in to view this image Overall. We don't like being pressed high and we don't like it when teams make it scrappy. Great point, far from great performance but part and parcel of the game is to pick up points when you don't play well, taking that into account and that it was an away game, a point is a fantastic result. Goals WBA:2 Sunderland:2 Shots WBA:10 Sunderland:7 Passing WBA:81% Sunderland:77% Chances Created WBA:8 Sunderland:4 Crossing WBA:30 Sunderland:17 Tackles WBA:28% Sunderland:49% Interceptions WBA:11 Sunderland:19 Clearances WBA:16 Sunderland:46 Fouls WBA:17 Sunderland:8 Blocks WBA:15 Sunderland:11 http://www.squawka.com/
Cheers Bri. So AJ, Fletch and Conor largely anonymous. Makes you wonder how we got a result with 1/4 of the team ineffective. Bodes we'll if we can get our front players ticking, perk up the midfield a bit and solidify the defense. Any stats on Gomez' contribution?
Interesting that many comment-makers on here were suggesting Altidore would have been a better option than Fletcher. Personally, I rate Fletch and think he will improve, as for Altidore, I've always stuck my neck out here and thought he is a far better player than his appalling stats suggest. Also, although some of the flack he gets is understandable, given the frustration of his goal-scoring impotency, he is a player with considerable ability and typically causes more problems than Fletcher and Wickham combined yesterday.
Yep, Time permitting but there will always some kind of Statistical analysis weather it be individual or team head to head I'm also considering head to head pre match battle threads, again time permitting. Updated just for you fella
Excellent thread ..... I admit I sometimes miss things when I'm actually at the match and hysterical.
Cheers fella Stats never tell the whole picture but are still useful to help form an opinion. I'd really love to be able to access things like ground covered and distance travelled with the ball to really help paint a more accurate picture but I can't find anywhere with that information.
That means I've got to tag em like beasts with ****meters. I'll catch John O'Shea piece off piss but going to struggle with the rest.
Great thread very interesting. You'd think Fletcher would have put in more of a shift for the first game of the season.
Aye I know mate. I use Squawka because they are Opta stats, they just don't give the range of information i'd get from an Opta subscription. Still good that they're trusted.
Fantastic post Funk. Those stats are pretty amazing. Have to disagree, just a little on them not telling the whole truth. Of course they don't, but over a whole season, game after game I think they do. Apart from the obvious stats, like who scored, who got the yellow and red cards, who ran the most, they do tell you who put the effort in on tackles, completed passes, interceptions, etc. and they all add up at the end of the season, on who finishes where in the league. I'm very comfortably confident about this season.
Great info mate..I have not even been able to see any highlights as yet, so this gives me some idea how we played... PS..Was that penalty decision as bad as what a lot of pundits are saying?
