These stats aren’t the tell tail that you think they are tbh.milkcrate_mosh wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 9:41 amI think one of the issues with people saying they only use the "eye test" is they will often follow this with what sound like objective claims. Thought I'd look up the stats on forward passes, through balls, progressive carries based on the above. Stats all taken from here definitions for all the stats are all clearly explained in this link.
Jack Cork completes on average 1.4 "progressive passes" a game, by contrast Westwood completes the most in the entire team with 4.15. He also completes passes into the penalty area and the opponents third at a much higher rate. Jack Cork hasn't completed a single through ball all season, Westwood has 3.
Westwood's pass accuracy for short (5-15 yards) and medium (15-30 yards) is also significantly higher than Corks (>10%). His Long passes however are significantly worse and he plays a lot more of them a game, his long passes are also a lot likely to be high balls as well.
Westwood carries the ball towards the goal by more yards in 90 minutes than Cork does and is dispossessed less often. Cork however attempts more dribbles and is more successful at them when he does attempt them.
Westwood plays a lot more passes and a lot more passes that are higher risk of interception or losing possession. He tends to be much more involved in the buildup to our chances too which is often measured as "shot creating actions". He's involved in 4x as many shot creating actions as Cork, Cork has been recorded as being involved in a single "goal creating action".
I think that when we're playing badly Westwood is always going to look poor because it's likely to mean his higher risk way of playing hasn't worked out. But I think looking at the numbers helps to see why he continues to play. If you're a low scoring team dropping the CM that is most likely to create chances and be involved in goals(by some distance) is always a difficult decision.
It sounds exactly as Westwood is. Plays safe short/sideways passes (short and medium pass accuracy) then punts it into the box ‘progressive passes’ - a forward pass that attempts (key word attempts) to advance a team towards the opponents goal.
Westwood also take set pieces and took more when Cornet has been out of the side (a significant part of our game but not a necessity of a starting cm now that Cornet is starting).
It’s not about individual stats per say anyway it’s about the team, Cork allows the team to play more and pull others into the game to do their job - which is what a cm in a 2 normally does.
So it comes down to this - shall we play with Westwood and out everything through him with speculative long balls or a guy that keeps the cogs turning better and pulls others in and allows the team to play better overall… I know the one that I’m having.
