Aerial Duels
Back in October, I didn’t think our aerial ability had been truly tested. With 15 games to go, it has, and I wondered how the numbers now stacked up.
The same player is top of the number of aerial duels per game, no real surprise. That’s Tom Hopper and you would expect a centre forward to be the focal point of the aerial attack. He makes 8.39 aerial duels per game, with Walsh next on 6.94. I suppose some defenders might be expected to be around there too, and thus Walsh, along with Adam Jackson and Lewis Montsma are the next three on the list.
When it comes to aerial duels that have actually been won, the demographic changes. Adam Jackson, the player who won the highest amount of normal duels, tops this stat too. He wins 66.9% of his aerial duels, an impressive number, and the 17th best in all of League One. Liam Bridcutt is second in the percentage won table, winning 60.3%, but he chooses his battles wisely and makes far fewer, 63 all season long.
Passing
Back in October, we had five players who were making 40 or more passes per game: Tayo Edun (47.78), Jorge Grant (42.86), Liam Bridcutt (42.67), TJ Eyoma (41.43) and Joe Walsh (40.25). As we have evolved as a team, that number has increased to seven, with Jorge Grant now top (48.8 per game), Liam Bridcutt second (46.4) and Tayo Edun third (45.4). The players to have moved up to more than 40 are Montsma and Jackson, on 42.7 and 41.6 respectively.
Pass accuracy is obviously huge, and whilst I haven’t drilled down into forward passes and the like (which I will at another time), it is still interesting to look at. Our most accurate passers are likely to be defenders who spread the ball to full-backs and across the back four, and that is the case with Joe Walsh top (89.3%) and Adam Jackson next (87.9%). Whilst you might expect Montsma next, his penchant for the ambitious actual pushes a surprise player into third most accurate – attacker Remy Howarth on 84.4%. Indeed, the ever-impressive Conor McGrandles is fourth and above Montsma, with an accuracy of 83%. In all, we have ten players with 80% or more, encouragingly Max Sanders is one of those on 82.7%.
The further forward you go, the more likely passes are to go astray as players are closed down, harassed and harried, so perhaps Brennan Johnson deserves a mention with an accuracy of 77.7%, more than the other forward players.