Leeds (A) Match Thread

[Royal Biscuitman]

Stats on possession and completed passes do not tell the whole story...... giving the ball away in the final third whilst attempting to create a chance is acceptable, giving it away with a lazy back pass to your own defence is not.

[Snowball]

Agreed are there stats for critical mistakes like there are for key passes?

[Ian Royal]

Agreed are there stats for critical mistakes like there are for key passes?

http://www.whoscored.com/Teams/94/Show/England-Reading
Specific to matches, a red circle with an E shows an error leading to a goal. For general stats, Turnover or Dispossessed. Also Dribbled round by other players. Own goals are recorded too.

Akpan for example has a turnover 0.9 times a game, is dispossessed 0.6 times a game and is dribbled round 1.9 times a game. Against Leeds he got no Turnovers or Dispossessions, so his stats were previously worse.

[P!ssed Off]

Guthrie is deeper lying but not.defensive in any way

One does not have to be defensive to be more defensive than Akpan.

Guthrie is a strong tackler, and he is good at keeping possession. Last season his pass completion was 80% compared to Akpan's 75% - only Karacan and Drenthe did better than Guthrie, though Williams was very close, and Guthrie made more passes than any of them. At 2.4 tackles per game, Guthrie was our second leading tackler, again behind Karacan. Akpan makes less than half as many tackles per match as Guthrie (though this season he has closed that gap). Guthrie also comfortably beats Akpan for interceptions. I accept that statistics do not tell the whole story, but I do not think it is fair to say Guthrie is "not defensive in any way".

Having said that, currently Norwood is hugely outperforming last-season Guthrie statistically, both defensively and in pass completion. He isn't for key passes, but he is for accurate long passes. There may be many explanations for that, but if there were any doubt that he's earned his place in the side...

Sources: http://www.whoscored.com/Teams/94
http://www.whoscored.com/Teams/94/Archi ... nd-Reading

No, sorry. It's not acceptable to use dodgy stats to make your point and then cover yourself with such a flimsy disclaimer.
"per game" means exactly that, it does not mean 'per 90 minutes' as your 'statistical analysis' is seemingly suggesting.

Last Season:
Akpan: Total league appearances: 28, Total league minutes played*: 1512
Minutes per League appearance: 54
Total Tackles: 33
Tackles per 90 minutes: 1.96
Total Interceptions: 32
Interceptions per 90 minutes: 1.90

Guthrie: Total league appearances: 32, Total league minutes played*: 2602
Minutes per League appearance: 81
Total Tackles: 76
Tackles per 90 minutes: 2.63
Total Interceptions: 46
Interceptions per 90 minutes: 1.59

This Season:
Akpan: Total league appearances: 8, Total league minutes played*: 578
Minutes per League appearance: 72
Total Tackles: 14
Tackles per 90 minutes: 2.18
Total Interceptions: 13
Interceptions per 90 minutes: 2.02

As you can see, when compared fairly, Akpan does not make less than half the amount of tackles than Guthrie. He also makes more interceptions than Guthrie. The stats show that this season Akpan is slightly up on his stats from last season, but the main reason that he's making more 'tackles per game' is because he's
playing more minutes per game, and it hardly takes a statistician to work that out!

*minutes are calculated excluding injury time.

[Ian Royal]

But he's still not as good in those stats, right?

[P!ssed Off]

But he's still not as good in those stats, right?

More interceptions, less tackles.
I'm not a fan of either, was just pointing out the nonsense of comparing a starter's 'per game' stats with that of a substitute's.