Swansea City - Season Review Stats

Below is a Season Review stats presentation:  this includes stats around the Swans compared to other Premier League teams and also stats on areas such as Shots/Passes/Touches per 90 minutes played for the Swansea Squad.

In later posts I'll be looking at some of the figures in more detail and also producing some player specific stats looking at their performances over the season.

The presentation is available to look at below (click on the option on the bottom right of the presentation to view a full screen version).  If you are after a version to download, an interactive PDF is available to view/download here or (here if viewing on a mobile browser or if you want the PowerPoint version).

Swansea 1 - Liverpool 0

It’s enormous credit to the performances this season that Swansea beating Liverpool isn’t really news, even if the distractions elsewhere on the final day of the season hadn’t happened 11^th beats 8^th is hardly an earth shattering event.

As both Swansea and Norwich have proved, a team of dedicated players with a defined vision of what to do and an inspirational manager can achieve more than sides spending bigger money on individuals.  Personally I don’t think either Wolves or Blackburn would have been relegated if they had Rodgers or Lambert in charge.

The match against Liverpool saw Swansea dominate in the first half with the second being more even:

Liverpool largely restricted to efforts outside the box in the first half

Vorm busier in the second half but Graham's clinical finish made the difference

Graham’s goal was his only shot all game which again highlights how well he’s played this season scoring 12 (only 1 a penalty) from relatively few chances (there’ll be more on this in the end of season stats review coming up in the next few days).

Graham had only 20 touches all game and rarely ever has more than 30 compared to the 100+ for Rangel but what he does, he does well and combined with his off the ball work shows how well he has fitted in to the system.

Comparing Graham and Carroll’s contribution in the game isn’t a direct comparison as they have different roles, but the number of red lines on Carroll’s chalkboard can’t be ignored.  In his defence Carroll won 5 of 6 aerial duels although only one of these was in the Swansea penalty area.

A mixed bag from Carroll but tidy from Graham

It’s now going to be a long 3 months and if we somehow started next season with the same team (and manager) I’d be more than happy to take that.  Caulker on loan for another season would probably only happen if Spurs splashed out on a big signing which would be great for us but arguably unnecessary given how Caulker has performed for us this season.

It’d be a dream to keep Sigurdsson and the only hope is that clubs with bigger cheque books for some reason decide to overlook him and that Hoffenheim feel that what we can offer is worth more to them than keeping him (I think I’m clutching at straws there).

That leaves Rodgers who is arguably the key to keeping the rest of the squad at Swansea.  With the Villa job already up for grabs along with potentially that for Chelsea/Spurs/Liverpool or at the least speculation on these roles, it could be a long summer.  Putting aside league positions and a 'my club is bigger than your club' mentality, Villa are genuinely a ‘Big Club’ and the fact that the thought that Rodgers could go there is pretty much inconceivable is a credit to how far Swansea as a club have come.

Twitter: @we_r_pl http://www.twitter.com/we_r_pl

Match Stats: Created using http://eplindex.com/ http://whoscored.com and Statszone

Chalkboards: Created using Statszone http://fourfourtwo.com/statszone

Man Utd 2 - Swansea 0

The flow of this game was always likely to be heavily influenced by the outcome of the Man City game earlier in the afternoon and with City’s win meaning than Utd were 10 goals further back on goal difference, only a hammering would give City cause for concern.

It was arguably an ‘efficient’ performance by Man Utd but with little life to it.  Their 28 attempts on goal was the second most any team has had against Swansea (Man City Away with 30 at the start of the season being the highest), but this certainly didn’t feel like the onslaught that took place at the Etihad. 

Shots by Half for both teams

Swansea actually had more attempts on target in the second half than Man Utd, it’s difficult to say how much of the change was the introduction of Britton for Gower in the second half or just Man Utd being content with two without taking too many risks.

There were however numerous examples of Sigurdsson in particular having vast amounts of space in midfield and a Swansea goal could have made the last 20 minutes very interesting indeed.

Ashley Young was heavily involved in the game with the most touches (100) of any player and also made 23 of Utd’s 50 crosses which is the second most any opposition has made against Swansea this season (Villa Away with 51 being the highest, although the Villa example is a great one of quantity over quality).

Michel Vorm’s acrobatics have rightly made him one of the main contenders for Swansea’s player of the season but his distribution is also something that is worth applauding.

The chalkboards below comparing Vorm's passing away to both Man City and Man Utd are a bit of an unfair comparison in that in the first game of the season he had pretty much just turned up at the club. 

Against City there were a number of passes shanked in to the crowd but against Utd at the weekend his distribution was superb, with one ball pinged in to the opposition’s half straight on to Danny Graham’s chest a particular example of his accuracy.

Naturally not all long passes will be successful, but keeping long passes in play obviously increases your chances 

Next season it’s likely that teams will press the defence more, so his distribution out to the wings or up to the central striker will become even more important.

Related to this is Swansea’s relatively low success rate with Aerial challenges.  Swansea win by far the lowest number of Aerial Duels per game (6 with the next lowest being Wigan on 8), this will be partly because we don’t stick it up to a big man 20 times a game (Stoke have highest Aerial Duels won per game with 15) but also due to when the ball does get pumped forward the outcome isn’t usually favourable.

Most Aerial Duels took place in middle third so low % win not an issue around defensive frailty but around winning '50:50' balls with Evra winning 6 from 7 and Moore winning 0 from 4

Joe Allen again deserves a mention, winning 5 tackles from 5 attempts and having a ‘perfect’ second half with 25 accurate passes.  Hopefully he can achieve great things with Swansea but if not and he does move on in a year or two it’ll be fascinating to see what he can achieve.  Playing opposite Carrick and Scholes he looked a player completely at home in that level of company.

Twitter: @we_r_pl http://www.twitter.com/we_r_pl

Match Stats: Created using http://eplindex.com/ http://whoscored.com and Statszone

Chalkboards: Created using Statszone http://fourfourtwo.com/statszone