PrezIke wrote:
i can't really defend nasti these days but the continued use of pass % as a good statistic to defend some players and slag off on others has become quite silly, i think.
pass percentage does not account for the level of difficulty of the passes a player makes. this does not only not account for say how long the pass is, or if it was made between two or three defenders, but nor does it account for the situation a player is in when they receive the ball or when they set to pass the ball. those should ALL alter the level of difficulty of a pass, and be more indicative of a players skill with the ball at their feet than pass completion %.
we don't have those statistics.
if you want to compare pass % why is it that fernandinho's is 87% and silva is just over 88%.
are we suggesting they are worse passers than lescott?
of course not, but why?
because they tend to make more difficult passes, in traffic, after dribbling out of trouble, etc? because when they make a better pass that it has a better chance at leading to a scoring chance?
well, how about applying that logic to demi and nasti. for better or for worse, those players are ahead of lescott in part due to the above reasons. how many times have i heard one of the big plusses for us this season is "how quickly city turns defence into attack."
well, lescott is less likely to ensure that occurs. so as a result, i think, he sits despite attributes that make him a good defender because pellegrini's approach to managing the team values that slightly less than defenders who are more comfortable with the ball at their feet. lescott makes simple passes. great, he doesn't make many mistakes that way, but he also doesn't help create chances as much. this is his problem on this team. now, some more traditionalists will dislike this approach, and i get it, but it is not as clear as day that lescott is the better choice for the team and its approach.
i also believe we want to develop nasti, while we are moving on from lescott after the season, so pellers would also rather give nasti games, even if lescott may be rated a bit higher in defensive areas that are weaknesses we could use with strengthening on the pitch.
right now, however, nasti is not impressing too much, so he isn't teflon don or anything. he'll get a few more chances before lescott moves ahead of him, one would think.
But Nastasic doesn't spray the fucking ball 40 yards does he, that's exactly the point, he is a defender so when he passes, he passes to an available midfielder, he is not threading the ball straight through to a striker is he.
So on the basis at they make exactly the same type of pass, of course the statistic is relevant
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 1:40 pm