Lies, damned lies and statistics*

[phil]

So what does one do on a cold wet Good Friday (what's Good about it?)?

With all the recent posts about the need to rest Palacios, I got to think about the points we have dropped this season, at home, against lower table opposition when we have rested players (generally Defoe or Crouch).

I wondered if statistics would provide some proof of what is our strongest lineup. So I opened up Excel and calculated the average number of points gained per player league start. We have so far gained 58 points from 31 games; an average of 1.870968 points per game. The table of points, games and average points per start is:-

Starts Pts Av

Pavlyuchenko 3 9 3.00
Hutton 1 3 3.00
Walker 1 3 3.00
Modric 14 33 2.36
Defoe 25 50 2.00
Woodgate 3 6 2.00
Assou-Ekotto 22 43 1.96
Gomes 25 48 1.92
Bale 11 21 1.91
Corluka 29 55 1.90
Dawson 19 36 1.90
Huddlestone 27 51 1.89
Lennon 18 34 1.89
King 14 26 1.86
Kranjcar 19 35 1.84
Palacios 27 49 1.82
Bassong 23 41 1.78
Crouch 19 33 1.74
Cudicini 6 10 1.74
Keane 15 24 1.60
Bentley 7 11 1.57
Kaboul 2 3 1.50
Gudjohnsen 2 3 1.50
Jenas 9 11 1.22

Just as I thought - Jenas is crap and Keane is worse than Crouch and Defoe.

I then thought about extending this table to take into account points gained by minutes on the pitch (i.e. substitutions). But then I thought...."hey, I'm not that bored". But don't let me stop any of you guys doing it.

*Phrase popularised by Mark Twain and attributed (possibly inaccurately) to Benjamin Disraeli.

 

[fingersinc]

You are bored. At least I'm bored waiting in the ladies underwear department in selfridges

 

[ERO]

Livermore has 3 points a minute!

 

[rich75]

as with all these things, it's largely useless unless strength of opposition is taken into account, home and away is taken into account, who was in the side on the day in question etc etc

eg :

Jenas for example could have only played in games involving the top sides, all away from home and in a team comprising of the tea lady and Daniel Levys pet poodle for all we know from those stats

 

[Bus-Conductor]

You'd have far better off doing something more meaningful like building an airfix spitfire or even Apollo 6 with landing craft.

 

[bigturnip]

As you'd expect really, the players who play the most are in the middle and those who have only made a few starts appear at the extremes. What would be a better statistic if you did the same thing but for the last 30 starts of each player, not just this season, then they would at least be somewhat comparable.

 

[Achap]

Well done - lot of work there, and it may encourage others to refine it so that we can spend hours arguing about methodology of statistics compilation, instead of slagging off the players. :razz:

You are bored. At least I'm bored waiting in the ladies underwear department in selfridges

Hope you remembered that in Court they will quiz you on the difference between 'waiting in' and 'hanging around in'.

 

[ERO]

Something's odd with those stats btw!

Corluka is at 1.90 above our average. Yet the two other players that have played his position both has 3 points per match!

 

[bigturnip]

Something's odd with those stats btw!

Corluka is at 1.90 above our average. Yet the two other players that have played his position both has 3 points per match!

Corluka has filled in at CB a couple of times, so Walker or Hutton may well have played in the same game as him.

 

[ERO]

I was sure Corluka hadn't played CB this season. He did away to Hull though, with Hutton at RB.