Wednesday 4 September 2013

How Good is Özil? CAM Assist Leaders Compared

After the very exciting, deadline-day move of the German international from Real Madrid to Arsenal; I have been living in a feeling of euphoria: only chocolate, women in bikini's and trophies are here. Back to the headline: Özil is considered to be one of the best playmaking midfielders in the world. I will be comparing the best attacking midfielders in the top 5 leagues on their domestic league and 

Welcome, Özil!
Champions League performances. To qualify for the list, originally the player had to have a minimum of 17 assists in the Europa League, respective domestic league and Champions League in the 2012/2013 season, and be listed as an "attacking midfielder (central)" on whoscored.com. Those are still the requirements but I did not include statistics from the Europa League. We are left with a pretty impressive list containing Mesut Özil, Marek Hamsik, Andres Iniesta and Juan Mata. Özil is a world-class playmaker, but let's see how he fares against his fellow elite.




Although the statistics show that Juan Mata seems the best overall, just the goals and assists don't tell the full story. The data is skewed slightly by two factors. The first is that Juan Mata was Chelsea's primary free-kick and corner-kick taker last season. The others were involved in set pieces, but not to the extent of Mata.

The second, and more important, is the time spent on the field. Obviously playing more minutes increases the chances of getting more goals and assists. Next I will be comparing goals and assists against appearances. Unfortunately I could not find the exact amount of minutes each player played, so I will count starting appearances as 1 game and substitute appearances as 1/3 of a game.


The per game info shows Özil in a slightly better light by making the statistics more accurate. Assists and goals are the most important factors when deciding how effective CAMs are, but other factors like chances created, successful through balls, tackles made, interceptions made, dribbles completed, etc. are also noteworthy.

I won't be looking at it in this article, but I think Wenger could have a difficult time choosing his best midfield and wings if everybody is fit.

Regards

13 comments:

  1. What I find interesting is that some people assume that Ozil's assists are inflated by passing to Ronaldo, but they don't make the same argument against Iniesta (Messi) or Hamsik (Cavani). In fact, Ronaldo himself is upset about Ozil's departure. He said "He was the player who best knew my moves in front of goal" and that Ozil's departure was "very bad news for me." In other words, it's Ronaldo's stats that are boosted by Ozil! With his service, we might see Giroud AND Walcott go for 20 goals! Maybe...

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    1. A great point! I'm quite confident that Walcott and Giroud will get at least 20 goals each.

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  2. I am so pumped for this season, I think replacing Rosiscky with Ozil will make Arsenal a contending team. I think they are incredibly underrated. Arsenal's chemistry is one the best in Europe, and I think Arsenal have a shot at the quarterfinals for the CL.

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  3. Mata take a bow son let's give it up for the best #10 out there...It's a shame VDB can't see what is right in front of him! Although I dislike Spain so maybe that's a good thing!

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    1. Mata's statistics are particularly good because Oscar and Hazard are also very creative players, so one would expect the statistics to be distributed equally among the 3 of them.

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    2. Wouldn't that make it all the more impressive? I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say haha

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    3. Yes, that's what I'm saying. His statistics are impressive because he is playing with other creative players.

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  4. www.whoscored.com <- there use to be statistic from throug balls, dribbless etc...

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    1. Thanks. They don't have last season's statistics.

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  5. Of course they do. Just go to statistics and than click on any league you like.
    You can choose than data from the last 3 or 4 years...

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    1. Thanks! I was only checking on the player profiles, not by league.

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  6. http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/206/Tournaments/4/Seasons/3470/Stages/6652/PlayerStatistics/Spain-La-Liga-2012-2013

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    1. Thanks! I was only checking on the player profiles, not by league.

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