Matchday 14/15 facts and figures, for Harborne and beyond….
BIG LOSSES
An aspect suddenly softening a bit is aerial prowess, which certainly isn’t helping the problem of maintaining possession.
Christian Benteke’s rate for winning balls in the air is down only slightly (his percentage of success has dipped 4 percent compared to last season’s), but the reduction is magnified by the fact that the squad can’t come close to recreating his force in the air. Libor Kozak is the ideal alternate and yet he has already lost 56 of his 81 aerial duels here in his debut campaign.
A more specific breakdown of the sag: Benteke and Kozak are close to having the two highest amounts of 50-50 losses among all Premier League players who measure above 190 centimeters in official height. Below is the full list.
82 Benteke, Aston Villa
57 Giroud, Arsenal
56 Kozak, Aston Villa
50 Lukaku, Everton
49 Turner, Cardiff
47 Crouch, Stoke City
34 Ameobi, Newcastle
28 McAuley, West Brom
25 Shawcross, Stoke City
24 Distin, Everton
23 Turner, Norwich
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PASSED DOCUMENT
Below is a look at how big each regular player’s portion of dynamic passes (crosses, long balls, through balls) is among the total passes they’ve made this season.
Dynamic Passes/Total Passes
(Excludes Set Pieces)
Player Pct
Lowton 23.9 (39/163)
Bacuna 23.7 (89/375)
Tonev 21.9 (23/105)
Vlaar 20.2 (109/539)
Westwood 17.5 (85/483)
Clark 17.1 (61/356)
Luna 16.1 (44/274)
Sylla 13.6 (20/146)
Agbonlahor 13.4 (26/194)
Baker 11.4 (19/166)
Delph 11.4 (61/534)
Weimann 11.7 (30/256)
Kozak 7.4 (11/148)
Benteke 6.2 (21/341)
El Ahmadi 6.1 (20/332)
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UPPER HANDS
When the wide picture of the Villa seems a bit rugged, setups like Fulham can sweeten the perspective considerably. This weekend’s opponent contains some weaknesses within that are finally festering on the surface.
No product of the club’s player development system except Sean Davis, retired now and still adored, has started more than nine times for the Cottagers during the entire 12 seasons since their return to the top flight in 2001. Matthew Briggs, the only homegrown player to get on the field so far this season, has played a total of 89 minutes via two substitute appearances. (Such feeble reinforcement looks part of the inspiration for recently hiring Rene Meulensteen to the management staff.)
Below is a look at all the production that has been seen at AV from club products — each one listed started more than half (19 matches) the campaign next to his name.
*Gabriel Agbonlahor 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012, 2012-2013.
*Gareth Barry 2000-2001, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009.
*Ciaran Clark 2012-2013.
*Steven Davis 2005-2006.
*Lee Hendrie 2000-2001, 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005.
*Darius Vassell 2001-2002, 2002-2003, 2003-2004.
*Andreas Weimann 2012-2013.
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—Patrick Kinmartin (PKtype@Gmail.com ….. http://goo.gl/kLJDB)
