brisbaneblue

Some of my own takeaways from this analysis:
- Besic is a defensive workhorse. Last season he made an impressive number of tackles, clearances and blocks for a DM. He's not a dissimilar player to Gueye.
- Deulofeu is one of our most valuable players when he is on the field. 9.1 crosses, 0.52 assists and 0.65 through balls per 90 are all pretty phenomenal stats. His shooting percentage and on target percentages are also extremely high - you can see why Koeman wanted to experiment with him up front. I'd like to see him get a few more opportunities leading the line.
- Valencia is still very raw but there could be something there. It's very obvious that Koeman needs to work on reducing his high number of offsides and improving his shooting accuracy. But that being said, he had a decent goals per 90 figure (0.357) and he gets away a healthy number of shots (3.033) - both a pretty good considering he was mainly used as a wider player at West Ham.
 
 

Some of my own takeaways from this analysis:
- Besic is a defensive workhorse. Last season he made an impressive number of tackles, clearances and blocks for a DM. He's not a dissimilar player to Gueye.
- Deulofeu is one of our most valuable players when he is on the field. 9.1 crosses, 0.52 assists and 0.65 through balls per 90 are all pretty phenomenal stats. His shooting percentage and on target percentages are also extremely high - you can see why Koeman wanted to experiment with him up front. I'd like to see him get a few more opportunities leading the line.
- Valencia is still very raw but there could be something there. It's very obvious that Koeman needs to work on reducing his high number of offsides and improving his shooting accuracy. But that being said, he had a decent goals per 90 figure (0.357) and he gets away a healthy number of shots (3.033) - both a pretty good considering he was mainly used as a wider player at West Ham.
 
 

I realised yesterday that all of our new signings over the summer came from the Premier League and that with the exception of Mason Holgate, all members of our squad played at least 1 minute of PL football last season. I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon so I imported statistical data from the PL website and crunched some numbers on our current squad based on last season's stats. I tend to think that season totals (e.g. total tackles, total passes, etc.) or stats per game (e.g. goals per game, shots per game) skew towards players who start matches. I find that stats per 90 minutes of football (e.g. assists per 90 minutes, blocks per 90 minutes) are much more accurate when comparing players. Below is the overview of the numbers I analysed:
 

 
Key:
M = Minutes YC = Yellow Cards RC = Red Cards FO = Fouls SA = Saves PU = Punches GC = Goals Conceded GC/SA% = Goals Conceded-to-Saves Percentage TA = Tackles
BL = Blocks CL = Clearances HC = Headed Clearances PA = Passes TB = Through Balls CR = Crosses GO = Goals AS = Assists SH = Shots SO = Shots On Target WO = Woodwork
OF = Offsides GO/SH% = Goals-to-Shots Percentage SO/SH% = On Target Shooting Percentage

I realised yesterday that all of our new signings over the summer came from the Premier League and that with the exception of Mason Holgate, all members of our squad played at least 1 minute of PL football last season. I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon so I imported statistical data from the PL website and crunched some numbers on our current squad based on last season's stats. I tend to think that season totals (e.g. total tackles, total passes, etc.) or stats per game (e.g. goals per game, shots per game) skew towards players who start matches. I find that stats per 90 minutes of football (e.g. assists per 90 minutes, blocks per 90 minutes) are much more accurate when comparing players. Below is the overview of the numbers I analysed:
 

 
Key:
M = Minutes YC = Yellow Cards RC = Red Cards FO = Fouls SA = Saves PU = Punches GC = Goals Conceded GC/SA% = Goals Conceded-to-Saves Percentage TA = Tackles
BL = Blocks CL = Clearances HC = Headed Clearances PA = Passes TB = Through Balls CR = Crosses GO = Goals AS = Assists SH = Shots SO = Shots On Target WO = Woodwork
OF = Offsides GO/SH% = Goals-to-Shots Percentage SO/SH% = On Target Shooting Percentage

I realised yesterday that all of our new signings over the summer came from the Premier League and that with the exception of Mason Holgate, all members of our squad played at least 1 minute of PL football last season. I had a couple of hours to kill this afternoon so I imported statistical data from the PL website and crunched some numbers on our current squad based on last season's stats. I tend to think that season totals (e.g. total tackles, total passes, etc.) or stats per game (e.g. goals per game, shots per game) skew towards players who start matches. I find that stats per 90 minutes of football (e.g. assists per 90 minutes, blocks per 90 minutes) are much more accurate when comparing players. Below is the overview of the numbers I analysed:
 

 
Key:
M = Minutes YC = Yellow Cards RC = Red Cards FO = Fouls SA = Saves PU = Punches GC = Goals Conceded GC/SA% = Goals Conceded-to-Saves Percentage TA = Tackles
BL = Blocks CL = Clearances HC = Headed Clearances PA = Passes TB = Through Balls CR = Crosses GO = Goals AS = Assists SH = Shots SO = Shots On Target WO = Woodwork
OF = Offsides GO/SH% = Goals-to-Shots Percentage SO/SH% = On Target Shooting Percentage

He's already one of the best players at the club. But I think we will really struggle if he's ever out with suspension or injury - we don't have any other solid ball winning midfielders who can stay further down the pitch to break up counter attacks.

I think he gets more praise then he deserves because he's pitched in a few goals as a CB. But he plays too high up the field, has poor positioning in set pieces and is wasteful with possession going forward when he takes long shots from distance instead of building up play. £9.5m was a high price to pay for a CB when you compare that to Deulofeu who cost less than half of that and is younger and a winger.
 
This season showed us that we don't have a problem scoring goals, the problems in defence are much more obvious and immediate. Our transfer activity in the off-season is too unpredictable to speculate at this stage; with new investment coming in and no one being sure whether we can hold on to Lukaku, Stones and even Barkley. But one of the priorities will be to shore up at least one new CB.
 
If we want to challenge for champions league football next season, then I don't think Funes Mori has the required skill level to be a starting CB, I am not sure whether old man Jagielka will have the legs to play out the season, and who knows what will happen with Stones... I'd be very disappointed if Martinez does little to improve the central defence pairing in the off-season.

So it seems what's happened here is:
- In January we were languishing in middle of the table, so Martinez decided he needed reinforcements
- Niasse was having a blinder of a season in Russia and was leading top goalscorer in the league
- There was more than 1 club chasing his signature so if Martinez really wanted him then he had to get him in January and had to fork out the £13.5m fee
- Because of the long Russian winter break, he didn't have match fitness straight away
- Because of Lukaku's form, there have been some but very few opportunities for him to get decent minutes
 
With the benefit of hindsight, I think Niasse is an opportunity that Martinez could have let slip. I think it was obvious by the end of January/beginning of February that we weren't going to challenge for the top 4 and winter window signings are always 30%-50% inflated because everyone needs a star player and no body wants to lose one mid-season. £13.5m is a lot to pay for someone who won't do anything of significance until next season, by which time we will have Tarashaj and could have bought a player of a similar skill level to Niasse for a cheaper price.

More like this for me
 
GK: Howard, Robles, Stanek
RB: Coleman, Hibbert, Browning
CB: Jagielka, Stones, Funes Mori, Galloway, Pennington, Holgate
LB: Baines, Oviedo
DM: McCarthy, Barry, Besic, Cleverley, Gibson
RW/RM: Deulofeu, Lennon, McGeady
ACM/CM: Barkley, Osman, McAleny
LW/LM: Mirallas, Pienaar
ST: Lukaku, Naismith, Kone, Rodriguez
 
Think it will be mirallas Naisy pienaar mcgeady off in January. Could see Osman Hibbert Howard Gibson Oviedo gone in the summer. Definitely need some quality reinforcements depending on who leaves.

Unfortunately I think these past 3 games will make the difference this season - we got 3 points from what should have been 9. Liverpool, Man U and Tottenham also dropped points on the weekend so I think this round has to go down as a big missed opportunity. If you add on those 6 points that we dropped, we'd be in 4th place with an upcoming fixture against Leicester that could possibly hoist us into 3rd, but instead we are languishing in 10th.
 
We are playing really good football 70% of the time, but perhaps not having the experience to close out games is a negative side effect of having young talent in the spine of the team.

Unfortunately I think these past 3 games will make the difference this season - we got 3 points from what should have been 9. Liverpool, Man U and Tottenham also dropped points on the weekend so I think this round has to go down as a big missed opportunity. If you add on those 6 points that we dropped, we'd be in 4th place with an upcoming fixture against Leicester that could possibly hoist us into 3rd, but instead we are languishing in 10th.
 
We are playing really good football 70% of the time, but perhaps not having the experience to close out games is a negative side effect of having young talent in the spine of the team.

Unfortunately I think these past 3 games will make the difference this season - we got 3 points from what should have been 9. Liverpool, Man U and Tottenham also dropped points on the weekend so I think this round has to go down as a big missed opportunity. If you add on those 6 points that we dropped, we'd be in 4th place with an upcoming fixture against Leicester that could possibly hoist us into 3rd, but instead we are languishing in 10th.
 
We are playing really good football 70% of the time, but perhaps not having the experience to close out games is a negative side effect of having young talent in the spine of the team.

Pretty good timing, this would have to cut off a fair chunk of the wage bill.
 
Wouldn't resign Kone and would sell off McGeady and Naismith. After that, a quality up and coming strker would be needed and then I think everyone else could just move up one position in the peking order.