<div><figure class="external-image"><img loading="lazy" src="/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/statistics.jpg" alt="stats" align="left" height="220" width="220"></figure></div>One thing I’ve always lamented since starting to follow soccer seriously is the lack of statistics that are readily available to the average fan. Other sports (I think of American baseball and football for examples) tend to have large volumes of statistics available to fuel fan debates about who really is the most dominant team, player, etc. I find that pouring over statistics gives me a better understanding of the games and players but it has to be done within the context of looking at the overall game. It’s far too easy to get sidetracked by columns of numbers but it’s also great to have those numbers on hand.
With that in mind, I was delighted to find the <a href="http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12193_2705370,00.html">Opta stats feature</a> on the Sky Sports website. The current stats say that Cristiano Ronaldo is the Premier League’s most frequent shooter and dribbler, while Cesc Fabregas leads the passer category and Javier Mascherano is the leading tackler. Here are a few of the stats that caught my eye.
Top Shooter – Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd) – 90 
Top Passer – Francesc Fabregas (Arsenal) – 1676 
Top Tackler – Javier Mascherano (Liverpool) – 129 
Most Dribbles &amp; Runs – Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd) – 128 
Most Crosses – David Bentley (Blackburn) – 306 
Most Offsides – Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal) – 54 
Most Fouls – Kevin Davies (Bolton) – 76 
Team with Most Fouls – Middlesbrough – 422 
Team with Most Shots – Man Utd – 420
What are your thoughts on stats? Do you care? Do they really tell us something about a team or player? If you’re into stats, what sources do you use? I’m looking forward to your comments and links!

Do stats tell the story?

Do stats tell the story? - World Soccer Talk

<div><figure class="external-image"><img src="/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/keane.jpg" alt="Roy Keane" align="left"></figure></div>Former Republic of Ireland midfielder and current RTE pundit, Eamon Dunphy, launched one of his famous tirades in Roy Keane’s direction on RTE’s Pat Kenny Show on Radio 1 on Monday.
“I know Roy well and the one thing he hated when I knew him and when we were working on that book, he hated the bullsh*t that was part of manager-speak and part of player-speak. And now he holds these lengthy press conferences every week in which he anoints David O’Leary to be the next Ireland manager, anoints Terry Venables as the next Ireland manager.”
Dunphy went on to say: “He’s talked about the Cork GAA dispute, talked about how wonderful it is for The Premier League to play more games abroad and he’s just become rent-a-quote. And it’s quite extraordinary. This is a sharp, smart, outstanding human being and he’s just been sucked into that awful Premier League vacuousness and it’s sad to see Roy Keane bulls******g, but he is. But there you go. It happens.”
The strange part of this is the Dunphy helped write Keane’s biography back in 2002 and has always been a being a staunch supporter. He defended him during his row with Mick McCarthy <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prep4trYNj4" title="Eamonn Dunphy rant">and had an infamous pro-Keane rant during his departure from Manchester United in 2005</a>.
What are your thoughts? Has Roy Keane become a corporate shill? or is he just protecting his own interests? What about Dunphy? Is it right for him to launch a personal attack like this?

Roy Keane told to stop &#039;bull****ing&#039;

Roy Keane told to stop &#039;bull****ing&#039; - World Soccer Talk

Roy Keane told to stop 'bull****ing'

<div><figure class="external-image"><img loading="lazy" src="/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/0000e00310dr.jpg" alt="0000e00310dr.jpg" width="267" height="202"></figure></div>
&nbsp;
Sweeping from the left
A goal only he could score
Zinedine Kilbane

Premier League Haiku 4 Feb 2008

Premier League Haiku 4 Feb 2008 - World Soccer Talk

<div><figure class="external-image"><img src="/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/keegan2.jpg" alt="keegan2.jpg" align="right"></figure></div> A news flash on the Newcastle United homepage tipped me off to this. It is official, Kevin Keegan is returning to Newcastle United as manager. It will be Kevin’s third stint at St. James’ Park.
He arrived as a player in 1982 and led the team back to the top-flight before hanging up his boots in the summer of 1984.
He returned as manager in 1992, saving the club from relegation to the old Third Division that year before leading the Magpies to the Premier League the following season.
From that point, the attacking brand of football he had the team playing saw Newcastle dubbed ‘The Entertainers’. Keegan was a hugely popular figure during that spell as Magpies boss but was initially viewed by many as an outside candidate to replace Sam Allardyce. Keegan has been out of football management since 2005 after a largely unsuccessful spell as Manchester City boss. As recently as October of 2007, Keegan had <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/7044692.stm">told the BBC’s Inside Sport</a> that he would not get into management again as he was content in running his interactive football attraction Soccer Circus, which is based in Glasgow.
Gerard Houllier and Didier Deschamps were the names being linked with the position in the last two days but the club unexpectedly announced Keegan as the club’s new manager on <a href="http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/" title="Newcastle United website">their website</a> this afternoon.
We’ll be post more on this as news emerges.

Breaking News: Kevin Keegan is Newcastle manager &#8211; again !

Breaking News: Kevin Keegan is Newcastle manager - again ! - World Soccer Talk

Breaking News: Kevin Keegan is Newcastle manager – again !

<div><figure class="external-image"><img src="/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/badtackle.jpg" alt="badtackle.jpg" align="left"></figure></div>In the least shocking news of the week, Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel picked up yet another red card for a shockingly bad tackle. This time it was a sliding tackle and though the challenge was one-footed, Mikel came in with his studs up (and nowhere near the ball) on Everton’s Phil Neville.
This was the fourth red card Mikel has received in about a season and a half of being a Chelsea player. Of course Avram Grant took his player’s side “I will not speak of the red card,” Grant spoke. “But if it was a red card, many players who were given yellow cards should have had a red card too. I will not speak about it. I don’t say that I have nothing to say about it. I have a lot of things to say about it.”
Grant should not be defending a player with a history of poor tackles. Instead, he should be working with him on the training ground or sending him down to the reserves for further work. I hate to single him out as he is far from being the only player to be guilty of these dangerous tackles but timing is everything in life, and in tackling too.
There is no question that Mikel is a phenomenal athlete and is a fine passer of the ball but his other skills are questionable. He does not seem to have a grasp of the fundamentals of tackling and marking (e.g. his recent hacking of Peter Crouch) or he has been trained using videos from the 70s when this sort of thing was tolerated and encouraged. In this era, where the players are supposed to be protected from dangerous tackles, he could be viewed as a liability to his team.
Steve Sidwell, brought on soon after Mikel’s dismissal, also deserves some scorn for what the Independent described as “an attempt at arthroscopic surgery” on Lee Carsley’s knee.
What do you think? Are the rules strict enough? Too harsh? To me want to see more of these bone-crunching tackles?

Has everyone forgotten how to tackle?

Has everyone forgotten how to tackle? - World Soccer Talk

Norman Hubbard of ESPN Soccernet has written an <a href="http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=494662&amp;cc=5901" title="ESPN Soccernet">interesting article</a> on who he thinks have been the worst players of the season so far. Personally, most of the article is spot on but there are a few choices that I don’t agree with.
Liverpool – Peter Crouch. 
Has Hubbard not seen Sissoko play this season? I’d easily nominate him ahead of Crouch for worst player. Hubbard also cites Crouch for a poor performance against Marseille but fails to mention that Crouch has scored 4 goals in 6 CL appearances this season.
Manchester City – Darius Vassell. Vassell is probably the last of the Man City forwards that I would nominate though certainly the whole crew deserve a nomination. Vassell has been stuck out wide as a right winger&nbsp;and you can hardly fault him for that. He’s simply going out there and working as hard as he can in the role he’s been given.&nbsp; A better choice may have been either Samaras or Bianchi who are usually quite anonymous and don’t appear to be working too hard when given an opportunity.
Aston Villa – Curtis Davies. I concur that Davies has not had an impact on the club as of yet but he has been solid in Villa’s recent matches.&nbsp; To say that Zat Knight has made&nbsp; a rather quicker impact is not telling the whole story. I think the rest of the defensive unit around Knight has helped him tremendously but that has not prevent him from looking poor at times (particularly against Manchester United and Chelsea).&nbsp; I would have nominated Stillian Petrov who has only shown brief flashes of what he is capable of doing.
Who would you nominate and why?

Worst players of the season?

Worst players of the season? - World Soccer Talk

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