Best ever "hospital" back 5

[RC-Moderator]

With Jenkins confirmed as out for the season (with ACL?)

This surely is the best ever back 5 all with season ending injuries/operations:

Akpan - Jenkins - Maghoma - Harfield - Scott

Wishing all of them quick recoveries and hope they can all make a strong pre-season?

[Alex]

Not sure I’d have Maghoma in any ‘best ever’ selection, and I don’t think we should keep him.

Hope the others stay though, and wish all the players you’ve mentioned well with recoveries.

[Silasgoldeen]

I can imagine that Ellison is probably the loanee most likely to be available to us, so could see a Jenkins/Ellison/Scott/Harfield core next year. Wouldn't be the worst.

[Giles]

Awful as it sounds I wouldn't be keeping Jenkins next season (unless contracted). Great defender but made of biscuits

[redandbluescb]

Awful as it sounds I wouldn't be keeping Jenkins next season (unless contracted). Great defender but made of biscuits

He is contracted and when fit will be a 1st team regular.

[Silasgoldeen]

Awful as it sounds I wouldn't be keeping Jenkins next season (unless contracted). Great defender but made of biscuits

thing is he's never been injured before. So it could just be a ridiculous fluke. Also he's contracted anyway so it's all irrelevant.

[A.T.F.C 92]

Awful as it sounds I wouldn't be keeping Jenkins next season (unless contracted). Great defender but made of biscuits

If he stays fit next season the defence needs to be built round him

[Charles Dickens]

Not sure I’d have Maghoma in any ‘best ever’ selection, and I don’t think we should keep him.

Hope the others stay though, and wish all the players you’ve mentioned well with recoveries.

I am glad you are not sure as he is better than some think.

[Old Bob]

Not sure I’d have Maghoma in any ‘best ever’ selection, and I don’t think we should keep him.

Hope the others stay though, and wish all the players you’ve mentioned well with recoveries.

I am glad you are not sure as he is better than some think.

Would you care to justify that "better than some think", perhaps with some comparison of results with him versus without him? For my part, I find it difficult to go against the majority opinion, as expressed by Alex, based on things like red cards through indiscipline, penalties given away, goals conceded through poor anticipation and positioning, that sort of thing.

Like Alex, I wish him a speedy recovery.

[Silasgoldeen]

This is the updated on v off data (goal difference per 90 minutes for each player when they're on the pitch minus same when they're off the pitch). I still don't understand why Barrett's is so low but it could be that he's just come off late when we've scored a few, not sure. The rest all kind of makes sense. The recent run of form has nudged Theo and Maghoma further to the right. Poor Levi has been a catalyst for change when he's come off, but I don't think this is necessarily a reflection on him individually, more the game state. This isn't any sort of truth or rating, just a simple accounting of goals going in when someone's playing or not playing, so it is open to all kinds of factors. Interesting that as the season goes on it does start to make more sense though. "Woodhouse + Armitage" is a goal a game better than "not Woodhouse + Armitage", which is bananas.

[Old Bob]

onoff.png

This is the updated on v off data (goal difference per 90 minutes for each player when they're on the pitch minus same when they're off the pitch). I still don't understand why Barrett's is so low but it could be that he's just come off late when we've scored a few, not sure. The rest all kind of makes sense. The recent run of form has nudged Theo and Maghoma further to the right. Poor Levi has been a catalyst for change when he's come off, but I don't think this is necessarily a reflection on him individually, more the game state. This isn't any sort of truth or rating, just a simple accounting of goals going in when someone's playing or not playing, so it is open to all kinds of factors. Interesting that as the season goes on it does start to make more sense though. "Woodhouse + Armitage" is a goal a game better than "not Woodhouse + Armitage", which is bananas.

Interesting, Silas! How did you produce that? Is there a website or app?

Football being partly unpredictable, which is what makes it interesting, there are bound to be some outliers. This could explain Barrett's negative score, which as you say seems strange for such an obviously valuable player. I'm not sure.

One thing that occurs to me: if we edge ahead in a close game and a player is sent on to help shore up the defence and stop us conceding, does this tell against him in the sense that a goal difference of zero doesn't add to his score.(But then I suppose it doesn't subtract from his score either.)

Another interesting thing: Jack Barham has play a LOT of minutes. So it makes sense that his score will be close to our overall goal difference, which is currently zero. But Kai Corbett also has a score of zero having played VERY FEW minutes. I think this probably points to the crudity of this statistic, and hence a need for careful interpretation. If I'm right in that interpretation, it does mean that a player who has played a lot of minutes and has a very high score is hugely valuable ... take a bow Marcus Dewhurst. And, sad to say, the converse is equally valid, meaning that JVS is a huge liability.

Apologies to Jordi. I'm sure he is a lovely man and I mean him no disrespect. It's simply that that is what the stats seem to me to be saying.

[Silasgoldeen]

onoff.png

This is the updated on v off data (goal difference per 90 minutes for each player when they're on the pitch minus same when they're off the pitch). I still don't understand why Barrett's is so low but it could be that he's just come off late when we've scored a few, not sure. The rest all kind of makes sense. The recent run of form has nudged Theo and Maghoma further to the right. Poor Levi has been a catalyst for change when he's come off, but I don't think this is necessarily a reflection on him individually, more the game state. This isn't any sort of truth or rating, just a simple accounting of goals going in when someone's playing or not playing, so it is open to all kinds of factors. Interesting that as the season goes on it does start to make more sense though. "Woodhouse + Armitage" is a goal a game better than "not Woodhouse + Armitage", which is bananas.

Interesting, Silas! How did you produce that? Is there a website or app?

Football being partly unpredictable, which is what makes it interesting, there are bound to be some outliers. This could explain Barrett's negative score, which as you say seems strange for such an obviously valuable player. I'm not sure.

One thing that occurs to me: if we edge ahead in a close game and a player is sent on to help shore up the defence and stop us conceding, does this tell against him in the sense that a goal difference of zero doesn't add to his score.(But then I suppose it doesn't subtract from his score either.)

Another interesting thing: Jack Barham has play a LOT of minutes. So it makes sense that his score will be close to our overall goal difference, which is currently zero. But Kai Corbett also has a score of zero having played VERY FEW minutes. I think this probably points to the crudity of this statistic, and hence a need for careful interpretation. If I'm right in that interpretation, it does mean that a player who has played a lot of minutes and has a very high score is hugely valuable ... take a bow Marcus Dewhurst. And, sad to say, the converse is equally valid, meaning that JVS is a huge liability.

Apologies to Jordi. I'm sure he is a lovely man and I mean him no disrespect. It's simply that that is what the stats seem to me to be saying.

yes exactly that with Barham, he's generally not rotatable so his goal difference will be the same as the team's by and large. Hence the disclaimer that this isn't meant to be a rating, just an accounting that in some instances will give something interesting to chew on.

It is interesting that Mullins (400 mins) and Corbett (700) have presumably had similar use patterns but one's had different results. This fits with the eye test, too, in which Mullins does seem to be around when good things happen, while Corbett doesn't always seem to make a difference.

And it's most clean for Jordi v Marcus because they're the only two who can play a position, so it's very much two sides of a coin. For better or worse, Jordi had a fair few fly past him so we see this big difference.

Some of it will be circumstantial, but for every game Armitage and Woodhouse play, the numbers for the defenders who played at the start of the season get worse. Again, not necessarily an indictment on them, but in a way it is.

data is from here: https://fbref.com/en/squads/a8290768/Al ... Town-Stats

[Silasgoldeen]

I realise that these things aren't for everyone, but another interesting thing is that James Henry is now first in the National League in terms of goals plus assists per 90 minutes on the pitch. Again, I understand the limitations of this sort of thing but if nothing else it shows impact.

Barrett is 7th in the league in goals per 90 minutes on the pitch, which is outstanding of course.

We should of course acknowledge that this is happening in an attacking team, so forwards will look better than defenders, all being equal.