Passing
| Passes | Accurate | % | Forward Passes | Accurate | % | Backwards Passes | Smart Passes | Accurate | % | |
| Wigan | 448 | 351 | 78.3% | 151 | 103 | 68.2% | 51 | 2 | 1 | 50.0% |
| Rochdale | 414 | 321 | 77.5% | 161 | 105 | 65.2% | 52 | 11 | 4 | 36.4% |
| Gillingham | 371 | 291 | 78.4% | 153 | 103 | 67.3% | 46 | 5 | 3 | 60.0% |
| Fleetwood | 565 | 482 | 85.3% | 188 | 138 | 73.4% | 76 | 14 | 5 | 35.7% |
| Morecambe | 508 | 404 | 79.5% | 174 | 119 | 68.4% | 66 | 8 | 4 | 50.0% |
| Wimbledon | 501 | 413 | 82.4% | 159 | 117 | 73.6% | 68 | 8 | 3 | 37.5% |
It’s not going to take me to explain some of these stats to you, they’re presented there as they appear on Wyscout for you to take some judgement if you see fit. I’ve got a couple of takeaways and I’m happy to give those to you, whilst also allowing you to use the stats to draw you own conclusions.
I suppose the big one is pass accuracy, and of the games I’ve selected we were actually more accurate last night in all but one of the games. The other was Fleetwood this season, whilst Morecambe was third-highest. So, in three randomly selected games, home and away across two seasons, we were more accurate in all of the games this season. That can’t be right, we’re much worse aren’t we? Or, is it the case we notice it more because we’re in the stadium, picking up on the misplaced passes with disappointment, rather than watching on iFollow or listening on the radio?
To balance that, and to dispel the ‘it’s easy to pass back accurately’ notion, I’ve included the stats for forward passes. Guess what? We played more accurate forward passes in last night’s game than any of the other five, 73.6%. We even played more forward passes than in the two games I’ve selected which we won. Again, funny how perception and fact differ.
I’ve added backwards passes to see if we do play more backwards than we did in games last season, and this; to be fair, we do play more backwards this season; we played around 50 would be the average from the three games I’ve selected from last season, whereas this season it is closer to 70.
Finally, I like the smart pass accuracy as well. a smart pass, as defined by Wyscout, is a ‘creative and penetrative pass that attempts to break the opposition’s defensive lines to gain a significant advantage in attack‘. An example of a smart pass is one between two defenders which a player runs onto, or like the one Sorensen played which Bishop scooped wide. The average across the three games is between three and four successful, so there were no fewer than usual. The calendar year average (which isn’t shown), is 6.26 per game (last night we played eight), with 44% accuracy.
What is the conclusion here? Honestly, that’s up to you to decide. I would take away that we’re no worse this year with our passing, we might go back a bit more each game, but on the whole we’re certainly as accurate as last season, if not more.