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

[Adam456]

Stats will tend to agree with what we see with our eyes but aren't always reliable because they don't necessarily record the little details

That said, the point, as whether we should take a big money offer for him and the answer is a simple no. We don't need to sell him or Bale, VDV or other 1st teamers to fund a marquee signing or two. I'm sure have plenty of cash from Jan/summer/CL and we still have half a dozen fringe players to move on.

The crux of the issue is that these players are putting us right up there (top 3 before FA intervention) but it will be incredibly difficult to replace them until FFP and new stadium kick in as there are half-a-dozen stupid rich clubs out there chasing anybody who looks half decent. If things go our way tomorrow, these players will have made the club at least £50m over 3 season by getting us into the CL twice. Our success is snowballing - no need to step on it now

 

[mabolsa_ritchey]

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.

I like this, especially when thinking about goalscoring positions. VDV and Bale I expect to see the net ripple. Not so much Modric and Lennon. And Parker should be doing better quite frankly.

 

[ultimateloner]

We don't need to sell to buy, but we are so good now there are relatively few unproven players who can start for us without costing 10m+..

 

[parklane1]

Our most important player and we must not sell him.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

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)?

Halle-fucking-lujah. Excellent question. Rep to follow.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Whilst his passing has been good I felt this season he didn't have the killer ball and only showed it on a few occasions like bolton away, whereas VDV has shown this season he could produce a killer ball

Also the thing that Modric so great was his defensive play and this season that took a dip last season he was our little thug that no one suspected whereas this season he defensive performance has dipped imo

It's much harder to play killer balls when you are spending 80% of games as a fetcher and carrier for others deep in your own half though isn't it ?

Modric isn't the most valuable midfielder in the league, Toure is, but he is a great little player, used incorrectly most weeks, yet still contributes enormously to what we have become.

 

[shaqTHFC]

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

Bloody hell, that's in his first season aswell. I wonder what the 2nd highest number of assists a Chelsea player got this season was.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

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

In the league it's 6 goals, 13 assists. Silva is 6/15 but played 300 mins more. But let's not forget, these two both spent all season playing as attacking midfielders in the forward 3 of 433 & 4231 respectively. Modric is 4/4 but spent all bar about 4 games as a cm2 in a 4 man midfield. I doubt very much Silva and Mata would have the stats they do if they'd played where Modric has all season.

In the first two games we actually played 4231 and 433 Modric got an assist in both.

 

[yanno]

In the league it's 6 goals, 13 assists. Silva is 6/15 but played 300 mins more. But let's not forget, these two both spent all season playing as attacking midfielders in the forward 3 of 433 & 4231 respectively. Modric is 4/4 but spent all bar about 4 games as a cm2 in a 4 man midfield. I doubt very much Silva and Mata would have the stats they do if they'd played where Modric has all season.

In the first two games we actually played 4231 and 433 Modric got an assist in both.

Yup - based on where on the pitch they play, Silva and Mata are more readily compared with VDV, who scored 13 league goals (don't know how many assists) and missed some matches through injury.

That said, VDV is a much more composed finisher than Modric or Mata or Silva.

 

[shaqTHFC]

Yup - based on where on the pitch they play, Silva and Mata are more readily compared with VDV, who scored 13 league goals (don't know how many assists) and missed some matches through injury.

That said, VDV is a much more composed finisher than Modric or Mata or Silva.

I think it was 13 goals and 6 assists.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

It's much harder to play killer balls when you are spending 80% of games as a fetcher and carrier for others deep in your own half though isn't it ?

Modric isn't the most valuable midfielder in the league, Toure is, but he is a great little player, used incorrectly most weeks, yet still contributes enormously to what we have become.

Where did you get 80% from?

I genuinely think the reason VDV often drops deep to pick the ball up from the centre halves is because he's dying of boredom waiting for something to happen.

I have spent enough time watching him in the last 30 yards (and enough time watching him shirking his duties when we lose the ball/don't have the ball) to come to the realisation that he places too much emphasis on retaining possession as opposed to taking risks. I think he has a tendency to dither on the ball and the margin I'm talking about is fractions of seconds. In those fractions of seconds, doors close.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Bloody hell, that's in his first season aswell. I wonder what the 2nd highest number of assists a Chelsea player got this season was.

And here's a little known fact-Song notched 11 assists in the league this season. 11.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

In the league it's 6 goals, 13 assists. Silva is 6/15 but played 300 mins more. But let's not forget, these two both spent all season playing as attacking midfielders in the forward 3 of 433 & 4231 respectively. Modric is 4/4 but spent all bar about 4 games as a cm2 in a 4 man midfield. I doubt very much Silva and Mata would have the stats they do if they'd played where Modric has all season.

In the first two games we actually played 4231 and 433 Modric got an assist in both.

You know I can't stand it when we use him in a cm2. Neither do I like it when he plays through the centre in a 4-3-3 at Rafa's expense. You've always said you'd sooner have him out on the flank and there is a good reason for that, in my opinion-last season, Modric managed 61 successful dribbles in the PL (1.7 pg). Rafa managed 6 (0.2 pg).

And here's a curious one. Modric was dispossessed 88 times in the league last season (2.4pg). VDV was dispossessed 37 times (1.1 pg). Maybe that's because Modric attempts more dribbles, maybe it's because it's easier to mug him-I don't know.

For the sake of comparison, Bale was dispossessed 57 times (1.6 pg). Adebayor was the worst of the lot-105 (3.2 pg).

 

[Ribble]

And here's a little known fact-Song notched 11 assists in the league this season. 11.

Arse fans want to lynch him for seriously neglecting his defensive duties though.

 

[tototoner]

I think Yaya Toure would have a thing to say about this. I really don't think the stats can start to measure who is the best midfielder in the Premiership.

he would be my choice for best midfielder in the league

 

[Ribble]

Also it's funny you should mention the dithering Jh, because I think many in our team were doing it. At the start things were popping around with speed and precision, but then they started slowing down and the same kind of predictability started creeping in that really hurt us last season. In Modric and Parker you could really see it as they're in the centre of the team but it was there in Bale, Ekotto and Walker too for sure. What made it really stand out for me was when Lennon came back and then Sandro came in as well, neither of them were taking that extra half second to make decisions and if they didn't come off then they didn't come off.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Also it's funny you should mention the dithering Jh, because I think many in our team were doing it. At the start things were popping around with speed and precision, but then they started slowing down and the same kind of predictability started creeping in that really hurt us last season. In Modric and Parker you could really see it as they're in the centre of the team but it was there in Bale, Ekotto and Walker too for sure. What made it really stand out for me was when Lennon came back and then Sandro came in as well, neither of them were taking that extra half second to make decisions and if they didn't come off then they didn't come off.

Even when we were on a roll, we churned out plenty of rubbish, ribble. It was just easier to gloss over it.

 

[Ribble]

That we certainly did, Fulham for sure and Blackburn too, as well as West Brom (although without VDV and Modric that's a bit of a different story) but there was a point where things started really looking like we didn't know what we needed to do to win, which is similar to what happened last January when we really didn't seem to want to do anything other than get it to Bale.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

That we certainly did, Fulham for sure and Blackburn too, as well as West Brom (although without VDV and Modric that's a bit of a different story) but there was a point where things started really looking like we didn't know what we needed to do to win, which is similar to what happened last January when we really didn't seem to want to do anything other than get it to Bale.

I know what you mean. We lost our way. I think our confidence was shot and I also think that allowing Bale to do as he pleased was one of the most self-destructive things we did all season.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Where did you get 80% from?

I genuinely think the reason VDV often drops deep to pick the ball up from the centre halves is because he's dying of boredom waiting for something to happen.

I have spent enough time watching him in the last 30 yards (and enough time watching him shirking his duties when we lose the ball/don't have the ball) to come to the realisation that he places too much emphasis on retaining possession as opposed to taking risks. I think he has a tendency to dither on the ball and the margin I'm talking about is fractions of seconds. In those fractions of seconds, doors close.

VDV has always played this way, it's just what/how he is. He's never been simply a striker. I share your concerns about Modric defensively, and have been voicing them for a long time, since we started playing him as a cm in a cm2 in fact.

But for me it is not his fault, it is the fault of the management who keep playing him there.

I think the last part is harsh. He may not be of Iniesta/Fabregas class when it comes to the vision/incision of his passing, but you must allow for the circumstances too. Are we going to find a player more intelligent, more incisive, who could be more of an influence than Modric ? Iniesta/Fab aren't played as a cm2. The movement ahead and around Iniesta/Fab at Barca/Arsenal is superbly coached - is Modric playing in those conditions ? If you played Fabgregas in our team, in cm2, with the same players and same coaching wouldn't they look a bit shitter than they do now ?

I am not making excuses, I am not saying Modric is perfect, I'm saying your expectations might be a little unrealistic where he is concerned. Comparing his goals/assists tally with Mata/Silva/ is unfair because whilst he has spent most of the season grafting (a bit gayly at times I agree) in a cm2 with ****s like Bale and Lennon flitting around like fairies, Mata and Silva have had the much less responsibility and have spent all season in the attacking line of better structures, with better coaching.

I believe our manager has spent two years largely misusing one of our best assets. He may not have been as good Mata/Silva as a pure attacking midfielder, but I think he would have been a much better attacking midfielder than a defensive one. And have always believed that he would be of much more benefit to us and been seen in a better light if instead of asking him to be a busy ****, we asked him to be a creative ****, and left the busy **** stuff to Parker and Sandro.

Even if we played him in the middle 3 of a 433 it would put less onus on what he does badly and more on what he does well. The only way I could see us improving without Modric, would be if we played 4231, signed someone like Toure to play next to Sandro and Hazard to play RAM. Christ, even then I'd want Modric on the bench and not gone.