Stats - how much notice do you take?

[Bluebonic]

The modern statistics fetish wears me down to be honest! Ever since players started wearing those radio powered support bra's therre has been a requirement for a statistics orgy to populate the dross that is skySports news!

I dont care that player A ran 2km more than players b, because many players run around like headless chickens and notch the miles up! Others run intelligently, reducing the miles required but achieving the same or better output? Similarly, all stats about passing are garbage! If i play with a confidence player like Barkley and his confidenc eis low, as soon as I give him the ball, he will give it staright back to me! That equals a successful pass for Barkley but puts me into trouble and possibly loses the ball to the opposition! Similarly, when his confidence is up, he might make far fewer passes, but they will be 30 yard worldies? i know which I would prefer, but reviewing statistics would suggets that the games when he has been passing the ball staright back to who he got it from equates to a better performance, when it simply does not! There are only two statistics that have any real currency, goals scored and (for keepers) saves made!

 

[Bungle]

So, an important "stat" to you on whether to buy a player , or not , is how well hung they are ?

How much whip he gets on the money shot directly correlates to his set piece ability.

 

[Big Bob]

I like to look at team stats like number of wins/points per game etc over a long period as it can give a good indication of progress season on season. I don't normally look at individual player stats as there's far too many that can be used to make a player seem better or worse depending on your argument

This. Points won and position in the league are usually important stats!

 

[chrissyjack]

How much whip he gets on the money shot directly correlates to his set piece ability.

Imagine a player being offside due to his "shorts"

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I'm sure the club know and understand them incredibly well, but for the rest of us it's all a bit Football Manager.

 

[formerly manx toffee]

76% notice

 

[Groucho]

Some are useful, some not.

There was a clip of Rooney miss hitting a shot last season, it bounced straight to Zlatan who scored, the stats showed that Rooney got an assist, my eye told me that he spooned a ball onto Zlatans head.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics basically.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Distance covered is one that usually you can't deny*, Rom having the least and Gylfi the most. Should mean he'll chase the ball and our defence starts at the top of the pitch.

*Unless while the ball is out of play he is doing some 10m shuttle runs to make it look better, maybe someone who watched Swansea over the last few years can confirm?

 

[Tubey]

But that's just an example of stats done really badly. It's more like top trumps than statistical analysis.

It's the opposite of that. Not sure you read the article, but it's using stats to delve beyond the headline figure - e.g. where and how the assists are happening.

"Top Trumps" would be "Barkley got X assists, Sigurdsson got Y assists, so one of them is better at assists."

 

[dublinbluenose]

97% of all posts that begin with "so" are not read.

 

[Pistol]

Blame the moneyball approach. To me it's more interesting with regards to how much the club places value in statistics and this method, particularly with the pickup of the chap from Forest Green and to an extent Steve Walsh and the success of Kante. Players have to be measured somehow but as many have already said, statistics can be manipulated and framed in any which way anyone wants and on the flip-side there's also the immeasurable intangible assets. I try not to place too much emphasis on statistics, but I would be interested to see how much the club does.

 

[Goat]

http://statsbomb.com/2017/06/passing-percentages-are-mostly-useless-quantifying-passing-ability/

A very interesting read for those that care about such things.

 

[lancs blue]

should get stato on here

 

[bitter-no-better]

Stats are useful. But add in a players mentality, desire and consistency and you get a better picture.

 

[Armel]

Distance covered is one that usually you can't deny*, Rom having the least and Gylfi the most. Should mean he'll chase the ball and our defence starts at the top of the pitch.

*Unless while the ball is out of play he is doing some 10m shuttle runs to make it look better, maybe someone who watched Swansea over the last few years can confirm?

Not a fan of that particular stat. Running a lot doesn't correlate success. If you run around like a headless chicken nothing is gained. Loads of topplayers don't run a lot.