The Defensive Conundrum - The Stats

Who has been our best centre-back this season?  There is always a lot of discussion about who the best pairings have been, and who has been a liability. 

We’ve been through more than our fair share of central defenders over the years, some great, revered as demi-gods (until they refuse to sign a contract and leave us like the unwanted slags we are and move in next door with that red shirted lot).   Its ok, I’ll calm down.  Should never get myself started on good old Sulzeer Jeremiah.  Some of our defensive pillars have been slightly more wobbly, from the centre-back that doesn’t like tackling or heading the ball (thanks for Bunjevcevic, Glenn), through the ‘Ginger Pele’ who was just as dangerous in our own penalty area as he was in the opponents, and on to who out of our current crop? 

Who is the weakest link?  Gallas – just ‘cos of his overuse of his London A-Z bringing him from SW6 to N17 via N5?  King or Woodgate because of their lack of playing time? 

Looking at the players individually, there are a couple of clear winners in the shut out stakes.   The legend that is Ledley King has conceded a goal, on average, every 97.3 minutes this season in all competitions.  Excluding Corluka and Huddlestone with their solo match each partnering Bassong at the back and conceding a single goal, the second tightest defender we have is Michael Dawson averaging 86.2 minutes per net bulger.

We drop to a slightly more uncomfortable 65.7 and 63.7 minutes for Younes Kaboul and William Gallas respectively.  Assuming we want to ignore Steven Caulker’s 4 goals shipped in 90 minutes in our Carling Cup exit v Arsenal, we have ask Sebastien Bassong to shuffle forward to take his place at the bottom of this list.  Unfortunately, when I asked him to do this, he ended up so badly out of position he was sat on Ledley’s knee causing unknown damage.  He has been guaranteed to conspire to concede a goal at a rate of almost 2 per game (47.7 minutes)

But defending isn’t a solo sport, centre-back are partners.  At times, it may look as though they haven’t actually met each other, and the woeful injury record this season in this position has to have had an impact.  We’ve been without most of the above mentioned names at some point in the season; Jonathan Woodgate has been restricted to a goal-less 31 minutes in the San Siro against AC Milan. 

Our most frugal partnership this season has been the sadly underused King/Dawson pairing, who conceded only once in their three matches together.  At 270 mins/goal, they were more than twice as effective at keeping the opposition at bay as the next best pairing Dawson/Kaboul at 123 mins.  Michael and Younes have however had even less pitch time in the middle than the King/Dawson combo.

From the other possible permutations, out of a total of thirteen different combinations, only four combinations have been used for playing time greater than four full matches, displaying the pick’n’mix nature of our defensive team selection. 

Dawson appears again as key to our best defensive performances.  The Dawson/Gallas double act has been conceding at less than one goal per game (97.4 mins).  Dawson’s Batfink like wings become less like shields of steel when stood alongside Sebastien Bassong, when he becomes part out the worst coupling, allowing the opposition to breach our goal every 47.5 minutes. 

Our most commonly utilised duo – Gallas and Kaboul – manage to keep strong for an hour each time in between goals.  Again Bassong weakens a pairing by combining with Gallas to concede every 49.4 minutes. 

So, what do the stats tell us about our defensive options?  What conclusions can we draw? 

Firstly, we need to find a way to patch Ledley’s legs up and shove him out as often as we can.   We should be confident of conceding around 2/3 of the goals we currently let in if we could get King in the team on a regular basis.

Secondly, Dawson appears to be the rock on which we should be building our defence.  Yes, he seems to lose the flight of the ball now and again, and gets turned a little too easily at times, but if you ever watch a match and wonder how the f*ck did we just clear that ball from our area, chances are it was big Mike throwing his body in the way of the shot, or clearing the danger with a diving header an inch away from the oncoming striker’s boot.  He’s a good, honest, old-fashioned English centre half.  Don’t let him dwell on the ball too long, or he’ll be launching a 70 yard ball at Peter Crouch’s head.

Thirdly, Gallas is not the devil incarnate, and is putting in a properly decent shift for us this season.

Finally, it would appear that Bassong is (or should be) sixth choice centre-half, and would not have got the playing time he has (only Dawson and Gallas have played more this year) if King, Woodgate and Dawson hadn’t been sidelined.

Sadly, it may be time to say ‘Sebastien, you are the weakest link – now f*ck off’