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27 Nov 2016 22:15:13
Hi guys! First time poster here, have been following this site for a few years now and figured I might aswell join in the discussions.

So I know this is very old news but I for one is kind of disappointed we didn't get Vardy. I think him with Xhaka would've been very good business and made a lot of sense based on Xhaka's stats from last season. I actually looked up these numbers in the summer when my brother told me something about his passing stats, believe it was that only Alonso of Bayern Munich had more accurate long balls.

This was at the time when we were still linked with Vardy and here in Sweden the pundits had basically been raving all season about Drinkwater and one of the reasons was his long balls that he'd play to Vardy who was always going in behind the opposition back line.

So I compared Xhaka to Drinkwater and these are their stats on squawka from 15/ 16:

Xhaka vs Drinkwater
28 matches 35
22 chances created 44 (Xhaka's avg. would've gotten him ≈28 in 35 games)
20m avg pass length 19m
186/ 97 succ. / fail long ball 124/ 159
85% tot. pass acc. 78%

To me this seems like Xhaka feeding Vardy could've been truly great for us, since has a lot better pass accuracy especially on the long balls. Now, I donut know if Mönchengladbach had a striker in a similar mould of Vardy but anyway I'm sure that with Vardy up front, Xhaka would have created at least as many chances as Drinkwater.

An interjection could of course be that it isn't the Arsenal way. However if you actually look at the stats not many goals are scored "the Arsenal way" with lots of possession on the opposition half. When I was still playing hockey our coach would ask us how long we thought the average time was from that the puck crossed the offensive blue until it was in the back of the net. Everyone was way of and the answer was 6 seconds.

Now I've looked up the numbers from all of our games (in which Arsenal has scored) this season except todays game. Thou instead of looking at the offensive blue line I counted from the point when the ball passed the halfway line. I also disregarded the times when the ball was out of play ahead of corners, penalties and such.

Avg time from the ball crossing the halfway line until it's in goal:

EPL: 26,5s (fun fact: twice the attacks have exceeded 1 minute; 1st goal vs Southampton 1m 40s and the winner at Burnley 2m 29s and without those the avg drops to 16s)

CL: 12,4s (longest attacks 21s on two occasions)

EFL cup: 9s (longest attack 18s)

All competitions: 18s

So I hope that debunks claims that a Vardy-type striker wouldn't do very well at Arsenal. Anyways just think it's interesting facts, don't mean to cry over spilt milk. Sanchez up front seems to be working very well and if he keeps up his current avg goal/ game ratio he will end up with about 23 goals which could go a long way in terms of going for the title.

Rant over, sorry guys!

swedish gunner.

Agree0 Disagree0

27 Nov 2016 22:35:42
Welcome and i look forward to your future different angles.

27 Nov 2016 22:36:56
SG,
You need to find a girlfriend.

Only joking mate.

good post and welcome to the site 😄.

27 Nov 2016 23:15:06
Good stuff. Good to have stats back up your argument. Personally would love to see Giroud up top with Sanchez wide.

28 Nov 2016 10:18:42
Thanks guys!

Dags, you're probably right haha although to be fair I'm probably a 4 or 5 on the Kinsey scale

Ireland, maybe but he's our top scorer coming of the bench with 10 goals and I don't think that's a coincidence, he's a big guy so running around trying to hold up the ball to establish attacking plays for the full 90 minutes likely takes more toll on him than say Sanchez, but since centre halves are generally the same physical mould as him they will be more tired in the end so he will have a easier time asserting himself physically, and thus scoring.

But I agree in some sense because with Sanchez up top our options out wide are poor since Ramsey isn't a wing player, Theo is unpredictable, the Ox too aswell as being a bigger defensive weakness and Iwobi of course need more time to fulfill his potential.

28 Nov 2016 10:18:42
Thanks guys!

Dags, you're probably right haha although to be fair I'm probably a 4 or 5 on the Kinsey scale

Ireland, maybe but he's our top scorer coming of the bench with 10 goals and I don't think that's a coincidence, he's a big guy so running around trying to hold up the ball to establish attacking plays for the full 90 minutes likely takes more toll on him than say Sanchez, but since centre halves are generally the same physical mould as him they will be more tired in the end so he will have a easier time asserting himself physically, and thus scoring.

But I agree in some sense because with Sanchez up top our options out wide are poor since Ramsey isn't a wing player, Theo is unpredictable, the Ox too aswell as being a bigger defensive weakness and Iwobi of course need more time to fulfill his potential.







 

 

 
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