A collection of statistics I uncovered whilst researching my post in the Berbatov's goal thread: - Four times this season, we played neither Kaca nor Dejagah. We drew two and lost two. We scored one goal. - Seven times this season we played both Kaca and Dejagah in the same game. We won two, drew four and lost one. We scored eleven goals. In these seven games, twice Dejagah replaced Kaca (meaning they only appeared together five times); these games produced one win and one draw. - Four of Dimitar Berbatov's league goals came with both Kaca and Dejagah on the pitch, despite the pair only appearing together five times. - Ten of Berbatov's goals came with Dejagah on the pitch. Eight came with Kaca on the pitch. Berbatov scored one goal with neither on the pitch, a header from a free kick against West Ham (Dejagah later appeared as a substitute in this game). - Fourteen times, Dejagah played without Kaca. We scored sixteen goals, winning five and losing six. - Thirteen times, Kaca played without Dejagah. We scored twenty two goals, winning four and losing eight. (Note: all these relate to league games only) Make of these what you will. But from what I saw last season, Berbatov is at his best when he can drop back slightly and let our young wingers drive past him. This may go some way to explaining why we are linked with so many young wingers.
Great stats! I love a good set of stats! Just goes to show, a decent winger is essential, imagine if we had 2 (tongue firmly in cheek).
Interesting stats - if I had time now I'd look at the teams they played against as the level varies by game. I agree about Berba being best with wingers on the pitch.
Agreed, Silkship. I have that data too, of course, but including that extra level would have made the whole thing rather unwieldy. For now though, I will say that the five games where both played (and Berba scored 4 goals) were Everton and Southampton at home and Arsenal, Liverpool and WBA away.
Additional statistics - the assists for Berbatov's goals The assists for Berbatov's goals are broken down as follows: Kacaniklic - 2 Sidwell - 1 Ruiz - 3 Riether - 4 Duff - 2 Dejagah - 3 Worth noting that for three of Riether's assists, he received the ball from Dejagah before crossing for the goal. In addition eleven of Berbatov's goals came from attacks from the right hand side, two from the left hand side and two through the middle. Both of Duff's assists came from the right. Of the Ruiz goals, two came from the right hand side (the last was the penalty won by Ruiz going through the middle against Sunderland). I find it interesting that our effective play down the right was not mirrored down the left and it's hard not to conclude that is the result of the partnerships Riether had with Dejagah and Duff versus the issues we had with multiple changes to our personnel down the left.
...ergo we need a Sascha on the left to work with Kaca/Duffer/Frei (great analysis btw, thanks for the work)
