Best Midfielder in the Premiership.......

[nightgoat]

opta do this for a living, they are the best at what they do & i trust that Modric is top of there list for a reason....also ALL the prem clubs use opta stats & pro zone...hence the reason Chelsea, Man City & Man utd would have him in a heartbeat & hence the reason £40M was on the table...

...and why Liverpool spent £20m on Downing.

 

[adiepf]

...and why Liverpool spent £20m on Downing.

exactly...he had great stats for Aston Villa, but not all players flourish at all clubs...

on the other hand people are using stats (o goals 0 assists) to make a point of why he shouldnt go to the euros....cant have it both ways

 

[Chinaspur]

Surely this tells us Modric is the midfielder best at passing the ball.

1st stat = he passes it about a lot, 2nd stat = many of those passes are into dangerous areas, 3rd stat = he's also pretty accurate at playing balls in from the wing.

He could have made zero tackles, interceptions, blocks all season and still get those stats.

 

[SNAFU_Clarke]

i used to work for opta. whilst it's a considerable step up on just watching the game and saying: "the boy modric had a good game", it is still, at the end a bloke on a computer calling it how he sees it.

in very basic terms there's a point and click, then name a player and point and click and name another player for a successful pass etc.. there are then a wide variety of user controlled functions to add detail to what has happened on the pitch. some of these were, in my time, functions that can state a player has carried out something particularly well or badly, successfully dribbled or beat an opponent. whilst every effort is made to ensure that there is a standard approach to these functions they are, by their nature, subjective.

 

[kishman]

I think some people on here don't realise how easy Luka makes things look.

 

[Ribble]

??

a created chance is a created chance, i dont get your argument?

he has put a man through on goal 96 times!!....the 3rd highest behind silva & mata...

he has completed 2534 passes dwarfing both, he has the 4th highest crosses dwarfing both...

he is statistically the best "all round" midfielder in the premiership????...its in black & white, what do you want from him?

To be fair this season a 'created chance' includes all the times when Bale idiotically takes a shot from a totally stupid area where he'll never score from, which would've helped the stats.

He's still practically irreplaceable though.

 

[greaves]

i used to work for opta. whilst it's a considerable step up on just watching the game and saying: "the boy modric had a good game", it is still, at the end a bloke on a computer calling it how he sees it.

in very basic terms there's a point and click, then name a player and point and click and name another player for a successful pass etc.. there are then a wide variety of user controlled functions to add detail to what has happened on the pitch. some of these were, in my time, functions that can state a player has carried out something particularly well or badly, successfully dribbled or beat an opponent. whilst every effort is made to ensure that there is a standard approach to these functions they are, by their nature, subjective.

Interesting. Half-seriously but bearing in mind we are Spurs fans following a very special club, the finest known in this galaxy and all known galaxies, even those that have not yet been born:
Might someone do stats on the basis of the amount of pleasure a player brings to the fans? I guess this would be measured by a coefficient of duration and volume of cheers/applause. There is also the tone of response. Presumably there would be negative responses, such as boos from opposing fans, and that would have to be screened out/acknowledged... Is such a thing possible? Or even desirable? Has someone done it? He said, idly toying with the remains of his madeleine, and staring with desperate ennui through the glass of another transfer window....

 

[dvdhopeful]

??

a created chance is a created chance, i dont get your argument?

he has put a man through on goal 96 times!!....the 3rd highest behind silva & mata...

he has completed 2534 passes dwarfing both, he has the 4th highest crosses dwarfing both...

he is statistically the best "all round" midfielder in the premiership????...its in black & white, what do you want from him?

More goals?

 

[adiepf]

More goals?

but the point is it is multiple stats, goals are included yes but he comes out on top in more catagories than anyone...

look opta know better than me what they are doing, they have all the stats (including goals) on every midfileder in the country & they say Luka Modric is the best midfielder in the league...

i bow to their superior knowledge on this....its what they do

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

personally i think it's possible to think yaya toure is the best midfielder in the premier league without it meaning modric is shit.

Agree, I am a huge Modric fan, who said he was shit?

 

[SNAFU_Clarke]

Agree, I am a huge Modric fan, who said he was shit?

basically every time someone says, 'i rate yaya toure', or 'silva is pretty good too', adie whatsisface quotes some fairly random stats about how many times luka passes the ball as if that ends the argument.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

I read last night that Juan Mata scored 12 goals this season and provided 24 assists. Not bad going in a crisis outfit.

 

[ShelfSide18]

There are different types of midfielders so it's difficult to define who is best if we lump them all in one group.

Yaya Toure is possibly the best box to box man in the league, with Ramires and Song up there too but even those 3 have their own nuances and playing styles. Parker is our box to box man, although I can see him reverting to a more holding role as his little legs give up the ghost and I think Sandro will take over the dynamic end to end stuff as long as he improves his final third game.

Modric is certainly one of the best around at what he does, a passing midfielder in the middle who can operate deeper than your traditional playmakers who either play in the 'hole' (VDV) or drift in from wide (Silva/Nasri). Modric is more versatile in that he can play in a more advanced or wide position but I think he is best central, but preferably in a 3 where he can get most of the ball but is afforded added protection behind around him. Certainly one of the best around in my opinion, and whilst stats, of course, don't tell the whole story they certainly back up the assertion that Modders is excellent at what he does - and also suggest his performances are, running against popular Spurs fans opinion blackened by the Chelsea episode, actually improving.

This season his passing accuracy has improved marginally, as has the average number of passes a game - so more passes made more accurately. His goals and assists tally has also increased too, as has his 'key pass' stats which is behind only Silva and Mata.

My eyes told me that this season we saw the same old Luka, the stats suggest I was on the right track.

 

[Ironskullll]

i used to work for opta. whilst it's a considerable step up on just watching the game and saying: "the boy modric had a good game", it is still, at the end a bloke on a computer calling it how he sees it.

in very basic terms there's a point and click, then name a player and point and click and name another player for a successful pass etc.. there are then a wide variety of user controlled functions to add detail to what has happened on the pitch. some of these were, in my time, functions that can state a player has carried out something particularly well or badly, successfully dribbled or beat an opponent. whilst every effort is made to ensure that there is a standard approach to these functions they are, by their nature, subjective.

Excellent point, well made, to which I will add some questions - in your time with opta, was there any element whereby an attempt was made to assess a player's performance when he was not in possession (either a temamate or an opposing player being in possession), or his response to a situation when possession was about to change; or else an attempt to assess the quality of his decisions (eg shoot or pass; tackle or hold, etc)?

 

[SNAFU_Clarke]

Excellent point, well made, to which I will add some questions - in your time with opta, was there any element whereby an attempt was made to assess a player's performance when he was not in possession (either a temamate or an opposing player being in possession), or his response to a situation when possession was about to change; or else an attempt to assess the quality of his decisions (eg shoot or pass; tackle or hold, etc)?

any element whereby an attempt was made to assess a player's performance when he was not in possession
no. there was a piece of software they had designed that basically showed a pitch. the first click showed the position of the ball, a drop down allowed the user to choose a player, a right click could add detail. the next click showed where the ball was now. a drop down allowed the user to choose a player, a right click could add detail. if both clicks showed player x passing to player y, both on the same side, then player x would have a pass completion added to their total. if it was a through ball, or a particularly good ball you could go back and add detail, or add detail at the time.

in another window the game would be running form a feed form whatever tv channel the game was on. i did a lot of italian games which was a joy as the ball was played around the back four a hell of a lot. this meant you could pretty much run the game and the analysis in real time during these parts of the game. something that isn't often possible in the english or scottish games. i'm pretty sure that the players not in possession did not really have their positions tracked in any way. i stress though that this is the first level of analysis and they did often run 'in running' analysis for live games for betting purposes and they had as many as 6 analysts working simultaneously. i never did these types of analysis as they're very hard.

an attempt to assess the quality of his decisions
this was possible to an extent by use of the 'add detail' function, but i would suggest that a subjective view as to whether the player had made a good decision or not was not encouraged. information in regards to a particularly good/bad ball, piece of control etc., was definitely collected.

 

[Bobbins]

You can love and embrace Luka all you like - if he wants to leave I don't think we can force him to stay for another year.

All anyone has ever said is that if we get a massive offer and he kicks up a fuss again like he did last summer, then we should sell him, as it makes good business sense. No-one is saying they want to sell him.

Unfortunately every 3.72 seconds adie feels the need to tell us he's passed the ball a lot and therefore we'd be mad to accept £40m for him.

Oh and I'd rather have Yaya.

 

[tutlek]

...and why Liverpool spent £20m on Downing.

Here is an interesting analysis of Liverpools' midfield and attack for this season.
It is amateur take. but I think it makes sense and logic. I saw Liverpool many times lst year and it was crazy how many clear cut chances their attackers missed

http://www.nevermanagealone.com/201...rpool-EPL-Premier-League-statistics-transfers

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

Surely pass completion percentage is more important than the total amount of passes?! I'm sure Luka scores highly in that area too anyway.

But what IOMLS says is spot on. Football isn't played on a spreadsheet full of stats, unless you're playing Football Manager on your PC.

 

[JimmyG2]

My own OPTA stats register the Level Of Expectancy when a player gets the ball.
Modric rates highest in our team in that I fully expect him to beat a man or three and do something positive with it.
Similarly with Van Der Vaart.
I am less hopeful when say Parker, Walker or Kaboul are on the ball.
I am getting more hopeful about Sandro.
I haven't a clue when Lennon and Bale get the ball.

So what we have here is an embryonic alternative OPTA chart
the JimmyG2 LOE rating.

Modric is clearly top of this.

I hope this helps.

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

My own OPTA stats register the Level Of Expectancy when a player gets the ball.
Modric rates highest in our team in that I fully expect him to beat a man or three and do something positive with it.
Similarly with Van Der Vaart.
I am less hopeful when say Parker, Walker or Kaboul are on the ball.
I am getting more hopeful about Sandro.
I haven't a clue when Lennon and Bale get the ball.

So what we have here is an embryonic alternative OPTA chart
the JimmyG2 LOE rating.

Modric is clearly top of this.

I hope this helps.

He clearly IS the best midfielder in the Premier League then. Well, that settles it.