Shooting
If you don’t shoot, you won’t score. That’s what my Dad used to tell me playing for Wragby and to be fair, I did shoot and still didn’t score. It felt like that might be the tale of our evening against Crewe, but we got our goal through Harry Anderson, who has had the second most amount of shots for us this season (23, joint with James Jones and behind Grant on 29). It isn’t a surprise to see those players up there in terms of the number of shots either.
In terms of shots per game, Jamie Soule leads the way with four in his one outing, but of the other players, Jorge Grant is up there with 2.07. Mind you, take out the six penalties (as people were ready to do with Big John, remember), and Grant would be on 1.64, fewer than a couple of other players.
Brennan Johnson is next, he has had 11 shots in his six appearances, with an average of 1.83 per game. Anthony Scully is next, a remarkable stats considering the number of games he’s played. He’s had 10 outings, but just 546 minutes and yet he has had 18 shots, 1.80 per games, which would be a shot every 30 minutes he is on the pitch, better than everyone other than Soule.
In terms of accuracy, the standings change a bit. Three players have 100% accuracy, down to the number of shots more than anything. Remy Howarth and Sean Roughan have both had two on target each, whilst Liam Bridcutt has had one. The best shot accuracy after that is, amazingly, Lewis Montsma (again), who has had nine efforts with a 66.7% accuracy. He’s right up there in almost every single stat you can think of. Johnson, Scully, Grant and Anderson are next, with James Jones the anomaly here; his 23 shots have resulted in ‘just’ 39% on target. However, that isn’t a bad number when compared with the likes of Marcu Harness of Pompey. He’s got 41% accuracy and five goals to his name. I get the feeling Jones will weigh in with a couple soon if he keeps trying his luck.
The other stat I love which I’ll touch upon is xG. As a team, we are not too far off our expected goals for the season; we have been expected to score 25.19, and have bagged 25. The big winner from xG is (again) Lewis Montsma, who has scored six but his xG is only 2.66. Anthony Scully is outperforming his xG too, with three goals from xG of 2.47. Four players should perhaps have one more goal than they have, Jorge Grant (-1.04), Harry Anderson (-0.94), Tom Hopper (-0.95) and Conor McGrandles (-0.97). All in all, the shooting stats are not that bad, but we could have had four more goals than we currently have. I don’t think we needed a stat to see that though, did we?
Dribbling
I’ve left this until last, which might be unusual. In years gone by, I’ve felt we have always had one or two players who like a dribble, but no more. this season, that is much different and we have plenty of players who want to run at defenders. The top five dribblers are Brennan Johnson (7.83 per game), Harry Anderson (5.08 per game), Anthony Scully (2.90 per game), Remy Howarth (2.80 per game) and Jorge Grant (2.79 per game). Special mention to Theo Archibald by the way, who had 2.40 dribbles per game, from just five outings and 165 minutes. That’s a dribble every 13 minutes, better only by Johnson, who is clearly head and shoulders above the other players for getting right at defenders. Whets the appetite for the next few weeks, doesn’t it?
In terms of dribble success, do I need to tell you who has popped up on top? Really? It’s Lewis Montsma. He makes 1.08 dribbles per game, but his success rate is phenomenal, 78.60%. That means that more than three-quarters of the time the big Dutchman goes forward with the ball, it results in a pass, shot or some other positive action. I find that astounding, for a centre back, something that is a thread running through this article. After Montsma, McGrandles is next up, his success rate is 66.70%, level with Bridcutt but from almost twice as many dribbles. Grant is fourth, 61.50% from more than twice as many as McGrandles, then Harry Anderson on 59/10%, almost twice as many as Grant.
Average Rating
As you may have seen, I have been collecting average ratings from players during October, so the final stat isn’t from Wyscout, it is from you. I’ll be doing a Player of the Month article after the next match, but for now, I thought I’d drop a little taster in here. The average rating for Crewe may change, but I have added it into my stats for now to give you a clear top three.
In third so far this month is Brennan Johnson, with an average rating of 7.63 from six matches. His best performance, according to you lot, was against Plymouth Argyle, and he has twice ended matches as your star man, against Blackpool and Plymouth.
In second so far is Lewis Montsma, who is leading for Man of the Match against Crewe with 8.6 at present. Overall, he’s played seven times this month and achieved a rating of 7.64. Other than Crewe, his top rating came against Blackpool, when he was given an average score of eight.
The current Player of the Month is Jorge Grant, with three Man of the Match awards according to you lot. He’s got an average overall of 7.70, but got 8.2 for his outing against Fleetwood, as well as topping the ratings for Charlton at home (seems a long while ago) and Mansfield in the cup. Joe Walsh (7.60), Harry Anderson (7.41) and TJ Eyoma (7.33) make up the next highest rated players, with the latter two having played eight matches or every game through the month.
Conclusion
I guess you can draw whatever conclusions you want from stats, you’ll either find this interesting or dull as dishwater. Personally, I love compiling them and find it fascinating to see Lewis Montsma right up there for almost everything. I saw Kev Barwise claiming he was Premier League quality already and could be worth £10m – I think that’s maybe a bit high, but I could see him being worth £1m in January, especially when you see what Rob Dickie recently went for. Montsma is the perfect centre back for the modern age, an all-rounder with skills as well as a penchant for the ugly stuff.
I liked the fact most of the players appeared high up in something – it shows we have a rounded team of able players. again, I know you will say that you don’t need stats to prove that, but sometimes it is nice for the figures to back up the vision we have of our side.
You might find other patterns in there, other aspects which make you ponder. One might think Adam Jackson and Joe Walsh will swap depending on the opposition, for instance. I Jackson more a man to handle Northampton and the like, whilst Walsh fits in better against a different style of attack? Maybe. Draw from the article what you will. My only hope is that you enjoyed it.