Muamba can't dance, Steinsson couldn't hit a cows arse

[Worthy4England]

WTW look away now.....

Stats from Guardian Chalkboards....

[Tombwfc]

Those are great.

Will it finally put to bed the myth that Muamba can't pass? His pass completion rate is better than Holdens.

Him not being able to shoot isn't a myth though. Christ. I'd back myself to hit the target more often than that.

[Worthy4England]

Those are great.

Will it finally put to bed the myth that Muamba can't pass? His pass completion rate is better than Holdens.

Him not being able to shoot isn't a myth though. Christ. I'd back myself to hit the target more often than that.

Be serious. We really wouldn't want to confuse urban myth with anything approaching fact...

Silly idea.

[Horza]

Yep, we suffered Holden's absence because of his tackling, not passing.

[Lofthouse Lower]

Trouble with 'pass' is that it covers both the 80 yard Gerrard Hollywood ball and the 5 yard nip back to the centre half, so I'd be wary about relying on that column when it covers such broad ground.

Would be interested to know how many went back, sideways and forwards, to make the data a bit more relevant.

[malcd1]

Those are great.

Will it finally put to bed the myth that Muamba can't pass? His pass completion rate is better than Holdens.

Him not being able to shoot isn't a myth though. Christ. I'd back myself to hit the target more often than that.

Of course statistics don't always tell the full story. I would guess that most of Muamba's passes are across the pitch and are all relatively short. You very rarely see him trying to thread one through the defence for Petrov or Lee to run onto. I would also guess that Holden's passes were infinitely more positive than Moo's, on average.

Saying that a 73% pass rate isn't bad but still frustrating if he can't find a man only 5 metres away.

Edit - LL just beat me to the point.

[malcd1]

I would back that up by pointing out the number of Muamba's assists. Zero.

It is the same with the Tackles column. Muamba doesn't appear to tackle much for a defensive midfielder. Most of his work is getting behind the ball and stopping attacks by blocking the opponents midfield a la Claude Makelele (But obviously nowhere near as good).

[Lofthouse Lower]

'assists'

almost as wankery as 'net spend'

[BWFC_Insane]

I'm not sure what these stats mean if anything.

If you're going to use these to make any case you'd say that our supposed ball winning, central midfield player, who most acknowledge is there to break up play more than anything, made less than half the number of tackles than our supposed, soft as shite, workshy striker!

Hmmm.

[Athers]

They tend to count aerial duels as tackles.

[Tombwfc]

Trouble with 'pass' is that it covers both the 80 yard Gerrard Hollywood ball and the 5 yard nip back to the centre half, so I'd be wary about relying on that column when it covers such broad ground.

Would be interested to know how many went back, sideways and forwards, to make the data a bit more relevant.

People (and mostly I mean BWFCI) weren't slating Muamba because they felt he was incapable of playing a Campo-to-Anelka style through ball, but that he was incapable of passing at all. That, as proven time and time again, is bollocks.

I'm not saying he's the greatest in the world, or even that he's better than Holden, just that he's clearly and obviously a perfectly capable passer of the ball.

[hisroyalgingerness]

There's a few fascinating things in all that

1 - Knight and Cahill's pass completion % are not that different, and I think the perception is that Knight is much, much worse. A reflection possibly on the ambitious nature of some of Cahill's balls
2 - there are much more passes from both our forwards and defenders than midfielders. Wonder how that measures up against other teams?
3 - workrate by Lee seems to be > left wing
4 - Davo's won vs conceded ratio now heavily weighted towards conceded, almost double

[LiOC]

There's a few fascinating things in all that

1 - Knight and Cahill's pass completion % are not that different, and I think the perception is that Knight is much, much worse. A reflection possibly on the ambitious nature of some of Cahill's balls

Or maybe it's due to the situation or thinking behind it. Knight's panic and hoof, and Cahill's are more calculated and calmer, but still unsuccessful.

[BWFC_Insane]

Trouble with 'pass' is that it covers both the 80 yard Gerrard Hollywood ball and the 5 yard nip back to the centre half, so I'd be wary about relying on that column when it covers such broad ground.

Would be interested to know how many went back, sideways and forwards, to make the data a bit more relevant.

People (and mostly I mean BWFCI) weren't slating Muamba because they felt he was incapable of playing a Campo-to-Anelka style through ball, but that he was incapable of passing at all. That, as proven time and time again, is bollocks.

I'm not saying he's the greatest in the world, or even that he's better than Holden, just that he's clearly and obviously a perfectly capable passer of the ball.

Actually my biggest problem with Muamba is that he gives the ball away too often and that for a defensive midfield player or breaker upper of play, he doesn't actually do it all that often. I think as people have pointed out what we missed mostly when Holden was out was that all round midfield presence rather than any great technical skill or passing ability. Muamba has no presence. If he did the passing would be less of an issue.

[Tombwfc]

There's a few fascinating things in all that

1 - Knight and Cahill's pass completion % are not that different, and I think the perception is that Knight is much, much worse. A reflection possibly on the ambitious nature of some of Cahill's balls

I think that's quite as expected to be honest. Cahill might have much more ability, but they both play mostly the same types of balls, either across the back-line, to Jussi or punt up to Davies.

On the subject of those punts, it's interesting to see Davies pass % isn't far off being 50/50. A good number of those hoofs upfield from the back, even if Davies wins them, are being flicked on to nobody.

[BWFC_Insane]

There's a few fascinating things in all that

1 - Knight and Cahill's pass completion % are not that different, and I think the perception is that Knight is much, much worse. A reflection possibly on the ambitious nature of some of Cahill's balls

I think that's quite as expected to be honest. Cahill might have much more ability, but they both play mostly the same types of balls, either across the back-line, to Jussi or punt up to Davies.

On the subject of those punts, it's interesting to see Davies pass % isn't far off being 50/50. A good number of those hoofs upfield from the back, even if Davies wins them, are being flicked on to nobody.

He gives it away with his feet quite often too!

[Relentless09]

100% of Blake's shots where on target

[LiOC]

100% of Blake's shots where on target

Yeah, 2.14 goals per game. We missed a trick with that one... over the 38 games thats 81 goals...

[Bruce Rioja]

I see that Jussi can now add 'can't pass water' next to his 'can't catch a bus' on his CV.

[Prufrock]

Trouble with 'pass' is that it covers both the 80 yard Gerrard Hollywood ball and the 5 yard nip back to the centre half, so I'd be wary about relying on that column when it covers such broad ground.

Would be interested to know how many went back, sideways and forwards, to make the data a bit more relevant.

People (and mostly I mean BWFCI) weren't slating Muamba because they felt he was incapable of playing a Campo-to-Anelka style through ball, but that he was incapable of passing at all. That, as proven time and time again, is bollocks.

I'm not saying he's the greatest in the world, or even that he's better than Holden, just that he's clearly and obviously a perfectly capable passer of the ball.

No-one was saying he literally cannot move a football to one of his team-mates. However it still stands that the vast majority of fairly mobile played football a bit when they were younger people on this forum could get 73% success rate if all they did was drop into space from midfield get it off the full back and give it him back. Muamba's problem is whenever he tries anything more than that. Overall pass completion proves absolutely fook all, otherwise I reckon I'd be able to make a decent case for Victor Valdes' passing being at a similar level to Chungy's. In order for it to mean anything you'd need stats for when under pressure, or in the opposition half when anyone with eyes can see Fabrice falls to pieces. I'm not saying he is a shit footballer, he is a monstrous athlete, decent brain and really aware positionally, apart from a bad habit of showing midfielders running sideways forwards instead of back, but he is plainly wank at any vaguely constructive passing.