Defensive Stats (for interest)

[Craven Mad]

I decided to do a quick tally of our Championship points-per-game stats for Dan Burn in another thread. I've now done it for the other defenders and for each partnership and thought I'd share what I found.

In order, points per game achieved when each defender played:

Michael Turner - 1.4 PPG [9 Games]
Dan Burn - 1.2 PPG [21 Games]
Shaun Hutchinson - 1 PPG [28 Games]
Nikolay Bodurov - 0.9 PPG [39 Games]
Cameron Burgess - 0 PPG [4 Games]

Now for pairings:

Hutch/Turner - 1.75 PPG [4 Games]
Burn/Turner - 1.5 PPG [4 Games]
Burn/Bod - 1.4 PPG [15 Games]
Bod/Hutch - 1 PPG [22 Games]
Burn/Hutch - 0.3 PPG [4 Games]
Bod/Turner - 0 PPG [1 Game]
Bod/Burgess - 0 PPG [4 Games]


I know how many on here feel about stats; I understand they're not perfect and am not seeking to say "IF WE HAD PLAYED DAN BURN WE WOULD 100% HAVE WON THOSE GAMES" - but I find it interesting to look at the effect of our defensive pairings on results, and think it's something to discuss given the woeful defensive form over the past few seasons. Hopefully some others find it interesting too, it took bloody ages!

Reinforcing the consensus of the board today, these results suggest Dan is our best current CB but may not be suited to a pairing with Hutch (in fairness, they haven't played together nearly as much as the other parings, which will have skewed results).


EDIT: I've added the total games for each player/pairing in to give an idea of the sample size. Figures taken from Transfermarkt.com. Maybe give/take one or two games, but hopefully this should be about right!

[rweller86]

How many games for these?

[Craven Mad]

How many games for these?

I'll go and add them in now. Gimme a few mins. [Now done]

[Chutney]

Ream and Burn could be excellent, ream is pretty mobile and Burn is clearly our best CB. Still, without reinforcing our full backs anyone playing in the centre of our defence will get shredded.

[rweller86]

How many games for these?

I'll go and add them in now. Gimme a few mins. [Now done]

Good effort. Burn has to play in my opinion.

[Craven Mad]

Cheers! Completely agree, it's madness that he keeps getting dropped. It can't be good for morale either, when we keep dropping one of our leaders for no reason.

Good performances need to be rewarded.

[McBride78]

I see Bod is not near the top of either of your lists, yet he is still on the pitch.  Do we not have a stats department? 

[Craven Mad]

I see Bod is not near the top of either of your lists, yet he is still on the pitch.  Do we not have a stats department? 

Agreed. I literally can't understand it.

Kit wants us to play a certain way, but the fact is that his way just isn't effective. Honestly, I think he needs to wise-up about how his team plays best and stop trying to enforce an ineffective ideology on the team.

Dan's name should be one of the first on the team sheet, every game. Kit needs to get his head around that.

I think Kit wants every player to pass like Xavi, but - truth is - we need defenders who defend, scorers that score, a keeper that keeps; leave the tiki-taka passing to the midfield and lets stop leaking goals!

[jarv]

Good job, always interesting to read these gems of research. Agree with your sentiment, defenders need to defend. Leicester is the best example of that when they got promoted. Three huge uncompromising guys at the back. Come to think of it, didn't they let go a good manager recently??? It's what is needed in this division I believe.

[Max Headroom]

I'm sorry Burn is not clearly our best centre back. Hutchinson is at the moment

The bigger problem is the support given by the wide midfield to the left and right backs. And the number of crosses coming

[Craven Mad]

I'm sorry Burn is not clearly our best centre back. Hutchinson is at the moment

The bigger problem is the support given by the wide midfield to the left and right backs. And the number of crosses coming

Hutch might be the best right now, but the numbers above suggest Burn's been the better option overall (and certainly better than Bod, who he was dropped for)...

Plus, if the problem is the number of crosses coming in, surely there's no one better than 6'7" Burn to belt them away? Of course, stopping the crosses at the source is the best solution, but Bod's clearly not able to deal with them (look at his positioning for both of the goals yesterday and that much is obvious).

[horse1031]

For Hull's second goal, Bodurov got caught in no mans land.

[MJG]

For Hull's second goal, Bodurov got caught in no mans land.

But in no mans land you would usually move a bit quicker that he did to get to the goalscorer

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[Bronaldinho]

For Hull's second goal, Bodurov got caught in no mans land.

Same against Brighton.

[Burgf001]

If Burn is our best centre back we should be seriously worried. He's far too easily pushed and shoved off the ball for a 6,7 centre back. He's not mobile enough and he doesn't lead the team much either.

[Chutney]

Hutchinson often sounds good on the commentary because he makes lots of last ditch tackles and clearances, anyone who has watched him live can see he is a poor defender. The best defenders don't make many heroic tackles and certainly don't often end up doing anything last ditch, they don't have to because of their positioning and reading of the game, the best defenders will rarely be mentioned by the commentators but will have a huge impact on the game. I'm sorry but Hutchinson isn't good enough. I'd love to see a stat showing goals conceded on average with each of the defenders, 100% we concede the most with hutchinson playing, the scottish league was his level.