by Snowflake Royal »
06 Nov 2018 23:27
NewCorkSeth Snowflake Royal NewCorkSeth Admittedly I haven't finished watching the game. He had a good first half for sure but my thinking was Clement is unlikely to overwhelm Rinomhota by chucking him in at the deep end. I expect he will be gradually introduced.
Of course I could be talking bollocks..
Besides he was only voted MOTM by the excitable fans who love "one of our own". Kelly was statistically the best player on the pitch, Bacuna is invaluable atm and Swift is, simply put, the player most likely to create chances from the centre of the pitch.
Hate to break your illusions on Swift, but he's got 2 assists, no goals and 1.1 key passes a game.
Kelly has 0 assists, 1 goal and 0.8 key passes a game
Whilst crucially Bacuna has 3 goals, 2 assists and 1.4 key passes a game.
So Swift is considerably behind Bacuna and barely ahead of Kelly.
To be fair Bacunas stats are affected by his set piece taking. Any corner or wide free kick he took that led to a goal or shot on goal within the same passage of play counts as a key pass.
And I'm not knocking him for that. Bacuna is currently essential to any "success" we will have this season.
The problem I have with you simplifying my analysis down to these raw stats is that it doesn't take into account other players effect on their game.
For instance Swift has reliably enough put in decent through balls and mostly accurate long range passes this season. Kelly has, more often than not, overcooked the shit out of a longer range pass or put way too heavy a touch on a through ball. The reason Swift doesn't have this reflected in the stats you provided is we have had severely poor wing movement for the better part of the season and ver sporadic forward play. Bod likes to move into the channels, Baldock likes to play with his back to goal while remaining central, Meite has grown hugely in the last few games but was postionally all over the place for a while and is guilty of his fair share of heavy touches and McNulty I haven't seen enough of yet.
I don't particularly think I have a Swift "Bubble" as such but perhaps I am guilty of over appreciating him. I just don't think you can conclude anything from the stats you have provided as there are too many variables to use them as evidence that Swift isn't a better option in an attacking team than our young and promising CM off the back of an impressive 60 minutes.
I used the stats because you specifically referred to Kelly as the statically the best player against Brizzle, so you used stats to support a view. As for Bacuna and set pieces being an advantage... I'd point out Swift takes set pieces too.
You want to talk about key long passes? Kelly and Swift both put in 0.2 a game (Bacuna 0.6). You want to talk about successful long passes? Kelly puts in 3.3 a game to Swift's 1.8 (Bacuna 2.
. Percentage accurate long passes? Kelly 49%, Swift 67% (Bacuna 52%), so yes, Swift gets it right more often, but Kelly gets more right total.
If Swift's stats aren't good because our wing and forward play have been poor, he's not our best chance of creating through the middle. Because he has to rely on other people to change.
There's a reason Kelly and Bacuna have played more than Swift and it's because Bacuna is more effective all round and whilst Kelly is a little less effective in attack, he's more effective defensively. Then you simply have the situation that Swift and Kelly together is proven time and again to be too lightweight.
This is off subject but defensively:
Successful tackles
Kelly 1.6
Bacuna 1.3
Swift 0.9
% Tackles successful
Bacuna 72%
Kelly 67%
Swift 53%
Dribbled Passed
Bacuna 0.6
Kelly 0.8 = Swift 0.8
Interceptions
Kelly 1.1
Swift 1.0
Bacuna 0.7
Clearances
Bacuna 1.1
Kelly 0.8
Swift 0.6
Blocked shots
Swift 0.1 = Bacuna 0.1
Kelly 0
Blocked crosses
Swift 0.3
Kelly 0.1
Bacuna 0
Blocked passes
Kelly 0.7 = Swift 0.7
Bacuna 0.6
Unsuccessful touches
Kelly 0.6
Bacuna 1
Swift 1.8
Dispossesed
Kelly 0.6
Swift 0.9
Bacuna 1.2
It's always nice when you develop a point of view from watching games and stats actually back it up. Swift offers less defensively than the other two, and offers less offensively than Bacuna so far, and not a lot more than Kelly. But he sure does play pretty.
Anyway, apols for the derail.
I shall be hoping to see Bacuna, Kelly and Rinomhota again in the absence of Ezatolahi.