A Statistical Look at Cardiff City’s squad in 2019/20 - Wingers

Where do you pick the bones out of this one? Junior Hoilett has been the most regular winger over the season, with Josh Murphy, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Gavin Whyte playing their parts too.

Let's start with some basic figures.

Hoilett:
Starts: 29 (substituted in 21 - 72%)
Sub appearances: 12
Goals: 7 (0.17 per game)
Assists: 3 (0.07 per game)

Mendez-Laing:
Starts: 21 (substituted in 14 - 67%)
Sub appearances: 6
Goals: 3 (0.11 per game)
Assists: 4 (0.15 per game)

Murphy:
Starts: 16 (substituted in 12 - 75%)
Sub appearances: 11
Goals: 5 (0.19 per game)
Assists: 3 (0.11 per game)

Whyte:
Starts: 15 (substituted in 11 - 73%)
Sub appearances: 9
Goals: 0 (0 per game)
Assists: 1 (0.04 per game)

The stats suggest that Gavin Whyte is out of his depth in the Championship. No goals and 1 assist from 1,265 minutes wearing a City shirt is dreadful. It's no surprise that he has rarely featured under Neil Harris.

The stats from the others surprise me slightly. I regard Hoilett as the best winger at the club, yet Murphy scores more on average and Mendez-Laing provides more assists. I looked at how often our wingers were pulled off as that's been a norm for both Warnock and Harris. Our wide players have such an important role in tracking back and getting forward that lasting 90 minutes week in, week out is impossible. Mendez-Laing has been brought off less often than the others.

While difficult to quantify, I make it that we've won more points on average when Mendez-Laing plays than any of the others, looking at points gained when he's been on the field and points on the table when substituted. Murphy is second, Hoilett third and Whyte unsurprisingly last.

We've scored more goals per minute when Josh Murphy has been on the field than the others, followed by Hoilett, Mendez-Laing and Whyte.

Next, I turn to TOBW's favourite, whoscored. According to that Murphy and Hoilett both produce roughly the same numbers of crosses per game. Surprisingly Joe Ralls crosses more balls than anyone else. Hoilett is, without doubt, our most accurate passer of the ball. Both Mendez-Laing and Hoilett produce more key passes. Mendez-Laing produces almost double the amount of dribbles to the others and is more likely to be successful with a dribble than the others. Apart from shot shy Whyte, the others have a similar shots per game ratio. Mendez-Laing does have more unsuccessful touches than the others, while Murphy has the least number. Murphy is most likely to be dispossessed while Whyte is half as likely at the other end of the scale.

Verdict: Statistically, Hoilett, Mendez-Laing and Murphy all make compelling arguments for their inclusion. None of them particularly set fire to the division but they all contribute and, with the amount of work they do, rotation and substitutions are essential. They're all arguably replaceable, they're all arguably invaluable in some way, bar Whyte, whose game doesn't suit this team at this level.

What about Adomah? Only here a while, but I felt that the stats definitely improved while he was around?

Nothing scientific from me here really, just a gut feeling that Mendez-Laing, who I find maddeningly inconsistent, is the winger who the description "if he plays well, then Cardiff play well" applies most. The stats show the much maligned Murphy as, arguably, our most effective winger when it comes to goals and assists and I would put a suggestion out there that his "body language" (a concept I think is very over rated these days) has worked against him this season.
I tend to agree with Eric's opinion that Hoilett is the best of our wingers or maybe it's more accurate to say that he's the best footballer out of them all for me - he's the one I'm always most confident about when he has worked a good crossing position for himself.
Sadly, I cannot argue with Eric about Whyte - we need more players around his age and you cannot fault him for effort, but those figures speak for themselves.

I imagine the crosses from Ralls are from set pieces?

I find the whole Gavin Whyte thing strange. When we bought him for 2m ish the Oxford fans were livid and thought we'd robbed them at that price - they really rated him that highly. Also, whenever I've watched NI games or highlights he always seems a danger. Just hasn't worked for him here yet.

"Statistically, Hoilett, Mendez-Laing and Murphy all make compelling arguments for their inclusion ... They're all arguably replaceable, they're all arguably invaluable in some way, bar Whyte, whose game doesn't suit this team at this level."

Ta for another in depth article, Eric. My view on Whyte would be somewhat different: he has played international football and has not been found wanting whist at City under Harris, sadly, he has not been given a chance. Keep the stats coming, EtHaB. They are much appreciated.

StT.
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goals / assists are far far better to show per 90 minutes rather than per appearance.

for example Josh Murphy has played in 27 league games over the regular season, scoring 5 goals, at 0.19 per game.

however, he only played 1446 minutes across those games, which is the equivalent of 16 X 90 minutes.
per 90 minutes he scored 0.31 goals, which is actually a reasonable return for a winger

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rjk

goals / assists are far far better to show per 90 minutes rather than per appearance.

for example Josh Murphy has played in 27 league games over the regular season, scoring 5 goals, at 0.19 per game.

however, he only played 1446 minutes across those games, which is the equivalent of 16 X 90 minutes.
per 90 minutes he scored 0.31 goals, which is actually a reasonable return for a winger

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I said similar when discussing the playing record of Cornelius, Madine and Glatzel last October. Saying someone has made eg 23 appearances when its 4 starts & 19 sub appearances is completely misleading.

Another gripe is the compressed league tables these days eg: P32 GD-3 PTS45. Oh for the days when many hours was spent on a Sunday afternoon pouring over the English and Scottish expanded tables:

P ... W .. D .. L ... GF ... GA .. .. W ... D ... L .... GF ... GA .PTS
32 . 9 ... 4 ... 2 ... 34 ... 15 ... ... 4 ... 2 ... 10 ... 19 ... 41 ... 45

StT.
<><

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rjk

goals / assists are far far better to show per 90 minutes rather than per appearance.

for example Josh Murphy has played in 27 league games over the regular season, scoring 5 goals, at 0.19 per game.

however, he only played 1446 minutes across those games, which is the equivalent of 16 X 90 minutes.
per 90 minutes he scored 0.31 goals, which is actually a reasonable return for a winger

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I'm not sure about that. Per 90 minutes favours a super sub. I quite like per start.

Take Danny Ward. 7 goals in 28 games. That's 1 in 4 appearances.

He's scored 1 every 132 minutes for us. That's 1.4 goals per 90 minutes.

In terms of starts, he's scored 1 goal in 7 starts. Taking minutes into consideration that's 0.14 goals per 90 minutes as a starter.

Mathematically they're all accurate.

Statistics like this show very little.

Comparing stats like passing accuracy, times dispossessed, distanced covered would all need to be reviewed.

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Originally Posted by WJ99mobile

Statistics like this show very little.

Comparing stats like passing accuracy, times dispossessed, distanced covered would all need to be reviewed.

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Yes, the more you delve into stats, the more inaccuracies there are. Good for a discussion, some are pretty conclusive, others aren't.