Prepare to lose your faith in stats.
Glenn Whelan’s Premier League statistics this season are better than James McCarthy’s.
The argument goes that the Stoke midfielder isn’t offering much to the Republic of Ireland team. They say that he’s a passenger and, more importantly, that he’s disrupting James McCarthy’s natural game who has put in his best performances for the country in the absence of Whelan.
But Premier League managers have trusted the Dubliner for years at the heart of their teams and, after nine games in the top flight of the English league this season, it is Whelan who is out ahead of McCarthy.
Everton are currently ninth in the table, Stoke are 11th.
One point separates the sides.
Whelan has played every single minute of their nine games – 810 to be precise. James McCarthy has played the exact same amount of time.
And yet, all the Toffees man really boasts is having more shots per game than his Irish counterpart.
Defensively, Whelan tops everything between the two.
More tackles, more interceptions, more clearances and blocks. McCarthy has seen more men dribble past him and committed, on average, much more fouls per game.
Offensively, McCarthy has been slightly better.
The Scottish-born player has had more shots and drawn more fouls and he’s lost possession less times but neither have directly affected their respective teams’ goal tally.
Whelan’s passing stats is better.
Pretty close. But Whelan is playing more passes per game.
And his in-play stats are more impressive as well.
More key passes is a genuine shocker and his touches have been tidier.
What does this mean?
Honestly? Probably just that football stats are still behind the times a little.
There’s nothing there to suggest that the passes being counted weren’t just buck-passing exercises or that they weren’t back to the ‘keeper or full back.
It doesn’t take into account the team’s dominance. McCarthy would obviously have had less defending to do than Whelan, playing for Roberto Martinez’s Everton.
Key passes are relating directly to chances created but, as midfielders, there are so many key elements that can come into play with quick passing, with forceful passing, taking men out of the game and that could all happen way before the goal or chance takes place.
The stats don’t prove anything conclusively and they certainly don’t disprove what people have been seeing in the Ireland team recently.
Still, they’re interesting all the same.
Whelan is rated and trusted by managers for some sort of reason.
But we’re not saying that strict stats like this should be trusted as the only form of judging a footballer over 90 minutes.
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