End of Season Stat Awards 2013
Now that the season has officially ended, I thought I'd take a look at overall player stats for the season and give out some end of season awards. There are seven categories, and we have a best and worst for each (think of it as Oscars and Razzies). Players were only eligible if they appeared in 10+ league games, so there were 19 candidates in total.
Clinical Finisher
Most: Mark Noble (28.6%)
Least: Matthew Taylor (3.0%)
So the first category covers the most and least clinical finisher in the team. Perhaps surprisingly, the most clinical finisher in the side is Mark Noble, who scored with 4 of his 14 shots this season. Obviously this is affected somewhat by his ice-cold nerves when it comes to penalty taking.
Below is an image showing where Noble placed his goals this season.
You may be slightly less surprised to discover that the least clinical finisher is Matthew Taylor. The utility man in midfield put away just 1 of his 33 attempts on goal, a remarkably poor return for a player renowned for his dead ball expertise, and a man who once reached double figures in the Premier League for former club Bolton Wanderers.
The image below shows the placement of Matt Taylor's rather wayward shooting this season.
Honourable mentions must also go to Kevin Nolan (12.8%), Joe Cole (14.3%), Modibo Maiga (14.3%) & Joey O'Brien (22.2%).
Likely to Hoof
Most: James Collins (32.6%)
Least: Ricardo Vaz Te (1.0%)
Another somewhat unsurprising winner, as the award for the outfield player most likely to hoof goes to centre half James Collins. Collins attempted 706 passes in the Premier League this season, with 230 of them classified as long balls (32.6%). Collins was the stand out leader in this category, with his closest competitor coming in the form of James Tomkins, who went long with 19.6% of his attempted passes.
The below image shows the average length of Collins' passes. As you can see, when he goes long, he really goes long!
And the award for the least likely to hoof goes to Ricardo Vaz Te. The Portuguese winger went long with just 5 of his 518 passes this year, making him the stand out purist in the side! Vaz Te was closely run by Modibo Maiga with 1.3%, and Joe Cole with 4.3%.
The chart below shows a breakdown of Vaz Te's passes.
The chart below shows a breakdown of Vaz Te's passes.
Minutes per Appearance
Most: Winston Reid (87.3m)
Least: Modibo Maiga (24.7m)
This award shows the players with the most and least staying power. Hammer of the Year Winston Reid averaged 87.3 minutes per each league appearance.The Kiwi was on the field of play for 3,143 minutes across 36 different appearances. He was only bested by Jussi Jaaskelainen who played every minute of the campaign, but goalkeepers are not eligible for this award as it is very rare for a goalkeeper to be substituted.
Reid was very closely followed in this category by James Collins and Kevin Nolan, who both averaged over 85 minutes per appearance.
The image below shows the players to have averaged the most minutes per appearance this season.
Bringing up the rear, however, was £4.7m summer signing Modibo Maiga. We only got to see the Malian in action for 420 league minutes in 2012/13, averaging a meagre 24.7 minutes per appearance. Only one other player averaged less than 45 minutes per appearance, Jack Collison at 37.5 minutes.
The image below shows the players to have averaged the least minutes per appearance this season.
Accurate Passing
Most: Mohamed Diamé (84.1%)
Least: Carlton Cole (59.7%)
Another relatively surprising winner here, with Mohamed Diamé scooping the prize for most accurate passing. Despite a reputation for giving away the ball with regularity, Diamé was accurate with 642 of his 763 passes in the Premier League, leading the way at 84.1%.
His closest competitors were far less surprising, with Mark Noble coming in in second place with 82.6%, and Joe Cole rounding off the top three with 80.5%.
The image below shows Mohamed Diamé's passing types this season.
Unfortunately for the big man, Carlton Cole displayed the least accurate passing this season. Just 59.7% (255) of Cole's 427 attempted passes hit their mark, meaning a whopping 172 passes went astray!
To be fair to Carlton, he wasn't the only striker to lag in this department, with Andy Carroll completing just 60.9% of his passes. The third worst in this area was long ball specialist James Collins, who completed 65.3% of his passes.
The image below shows Carlton Cole's pass types this season.
Wasteful
Most: Andy Carroll (5.3m)
Least: Winston Reid (13.5m)
This award is made up by a number of stats combined together. Combining the number of misplaced passes, number of times tackled, and number of times possession was lost by miscontrol gives us the number of times a player lost possession.
Andy Carroll was the most wasteful in the side, losing possession on average once every 5.3 minutes (270 misplaced passes, tackled 50 times, poor control 46 times).
He was closely followed by his attacking colleagues, Carlton Cole (5.4m) and Modibo Maiga (6.2m).
The chart below shows the number of times each of the three strikers lost possession in the league.
The least wasteful in possession this season, however, was Winston Reid. Reid lost the ball on average every 13.5 minutes. This could be something to do with playing in defence though, as his closest competitors were Joey O'Brien (12.3m) and George McCartney (12.2m).
The least wasteful attacking player was Matt Jarvis, who lost possession once every 11.7 minutes.
The below chart shows the individual occurrences of possession being lost by Reid, O'Brien, McCartney and Jarvis (although it appears that Read lost possession than the others, bear in mind this award is based upon regularity, and Reid played more minutes than the others).
The below chart shows the individual occurrences of possession being lost by Reid, O'Brien, McCartney and Jarvis (although it appears that Read lost possession than the others, bear in mind this award is based upon regularity, and Reid played more minutes than the others).
Involved
Most: Mark Noble (1.2m)
Least: Matt Jarvis (2.4m)
The award for most involved player goes to Mark Noble. Noble touched the ball on average once every 1.2 minutes in the league this season, making 1,934 touches in total, almost 300 more than any other player. He also attempted over 400 passes more than his colleagues.
Rather unsurprisingly, second place here goes to Gary O'Neil, who, mostly when filling in for Noble, touched the ball every 1.4 minutes, whilst Joe Cole finished third with 1.5 minutes per touch.
The chart below shows the players most involved, showing number of minutes per touch.
The least involved player though, was record signing Matt Jarvis. Jarvis only touched the ball every 2.4 minutes this season. Maybe we could see an increasingly successful career from the winger, should he be given the ball with more regularity.
Jussi Jaaskelainen came in second place here, touching the ball ever 2.3 minutes, whilst Carlton Cole and Winston Reid came joint third at 2.2 minutes.
The chart below shows the players least involved, showing number of minutes per touch.
Defensive Actions
Most: James Collins (5.4m)
Least: Joe Cole (41.4m)
As with the wastefulness category, this area is made up of a sum of different defensive actions. For these purposes, a defensive action is a tackle, clearance, interception or block.
James Collins made the most frequent defensive actions this season, being called into action ever 5.4 minutes. He was very closely followed by his fellow centre backs, Winston Reid (6.4 minutes) and James Tomkins (6.6 minutes).
The image below shows the defensive actions of the three centre halves this season.
The image below shows the defensive actions of the three centre halves this season.
The player with the least defensive actions was Joe Cole. Cole clearly spent most of his time attacking, as he attempted a defensive action once every 41.4 minutes. He was closely followed by both Matt Jarvis (38.2 minutes) and Carlton Cole (38 minutes).
The following image shows the defensive actions of those three players.
Used Substitute
Most: Jack Collison (85.7%)
Least: Gary O'Neil (38.9%)
The award for the most used substitute goes to Jack Collison. Collison started as a substitute on 14 separate occasions this season, making it onto the pitch 12 times (85.7%).
The criteria for this award was for a player to have been on the bench at least five times, otherwise Andy Carroll would have had this sewn up, having been brought on both times he started on the bench.
Collison was closely followed by Matthew Taylor, who was brought on 14 times of the 19 that he features on the bench. In third place was Modibo Maiga, who came on 68.2% of the times that he began as a substitute (15/22).
Below is an image depicting the amount of times Jack Collison was used as a substitute.
The player that the manager was least likely to turn to, however, was Gary O'Neil. O'Neil was brought on as a replacement 7 times, and sat unused a further 11 times, meaning he was sent on just 38.9% of the time.
Nobody else was used anywhere near as infrequently, with Carlton Cole coming in second place with 56.5% (10/23), and third place being shared by Guy Demel, Mark Noble & Matt Jarvis at 60% of their five appearances on the bench each.
Below is an image depicting the amount of times Gary O'Neil was used as a substitute.
