Like my other articles, it’s early days in my writing career so please share any feedback/improvements by tweeting me @cl_ftbl on Twitter. Your feedback is crucial for allowing me to improve and I appreciate any feedback you provide.
With the season finally over and full focus now onto to next season, I have decided to start doing a bit of writing on recruitment analysis and on potential signings for the new season. Like this rumour, it won’t be random names plucked out of thin air, it will be taken from a variety of sources (See below) with the rumours having a bit of substance. With us now delving into the foreign market, I felt there could be a bit of a gap writing around these links and comparing their statistics to the players we currently have at our disposal. This could be particularly interesting for any new signings that most fans don’t know much about. For this particular article my comparison will be to the current first choice right-back, Jack Hunt. So I hope you find this article interesting and informative and if you do enjoy it please ensure you share it around as the more interest these articles generate, the more reasons I have to write them.
Name: Sabri Sarioglu
Age: 31
Main Position: Right-Back
Current Team: Galatasaray
Contract Expiry Date: 30th June 2016
Previous Clubs: None
Nationality: Turkish
International Appearances: 43 (2 goals)
Data: Transfermarkt
In order to compare the two players I’ve created a @mixedknuts inspired radar plot comparing the two players statistics over the last season. In order to add a bit of context allowing comparability to the team strategy, I have tried to focus around how these key statistics relate to what makes a suitable full back in Carlos Carvalhal’s style of play. These characteristics are as follows:
Attacking Proficiency
As the radar shows, Sarioglu is more of an attacking threat. Despite both not scoring in league football last season, Sarioglu contributed 5 assists compared to the 1 assist from Jack Hunt. Although I’m not a fan of just showing raw assist figures, it does suggest that recruiting Sarioglu would increase attacking output from the right back position where we didn’t see much output last season from Hunt on the whole. The Key Pass figure shows how many passes a player made that turned into a shot, the fact Sarioglu generates slightly more key passes per 90 further strengthens the argument for Sarioglu.
Crossing/Cutbacks
As Wednesday fans will know, The Owls work tirelessly in the warm-up getting the ball out wide into crossing positions, to deliver into the centre. As the radar shows Sarioglu makes more crosses per 90 mins played than Jack Hunt, while this suggests Sarioglu makes more crosses, it could also indicate Sarioglu’s crosses come from potentially less fruitful positions, although this requires further enquiry.
Impacting Final 3rd
The image below shows the average position of each player, and the passes they made that generated an assist. As you can see the average position Sarioglu takes is further forward than Jack Hunt, combine this with the final third touches stat from the radar, it shows Sarioglu would be a better option for making impact in the final third. The final third impact becomes particularly important as Sheffield Wednesday play with narrow wingers looking to cut inside (See Ross Wallace on this image), so the fact Sarioglu is able to make a more efficient impact from full-back is better suited to the playing style than Jack Hunt.
High Pressing
Carlos Carvalhal encourages a game of high pressing and to assess this statistically I have plotted all defensive actions and plotted the average position as the big points. The theory behind this would be the higher up the pitch the average defensive action is, the higher up the pitch they press opponents. Ignoring the pitch width, you will see that Sarioglu’s point is slightly higher, suggesting that he would be a greater pressing option than Jack Hunt. Clearly this would require video evidence but it’s the best measure I could come up with the data I have available.
Jack Hunt Advantages
As the radar suggests Sarioglu isn’t better than Jack Hunt in every statistic. From watching him in person it is clear to see that Jack Hunt is a very direct/risky player who looks to take opposition players on with his pace. This is clear to see from the Dribbles statistic as Jack Hunt dribbles past nearly twice as many players per 90 as Sarioglu, one potential knock on effect of this is that it could explain why he is dispossessed a lot more per 90. Another advantage of playing Jack Hunt is that age is on his side, with him being six years younger than his comparative. The effect of this is that while Sarioglu is potentially a better option short-term, Jack Hunt will probably be able to play for a lot longer making him a more suitable option longer-term.
Conclusion
To conclude, I feel that signing Sarioglu would make statistical sense (ignoring wage demands) as his stats outweighed Jack Hunt’s in the key areas discussed above. As is clear, Sarioglu offers a greater attacking threat contributing more assists and making more crosses whilst attempting less risky dribbles per 90, which is important to the Sheffield Wednesday style of play. With Sarioglu also being dispossessed a lot less per 90, he becomes a stronger defensive option losing the ball on less occasions, in turn suggesting less defensive errors leading to less goals conceded overall.
Rumour Sources:
Don’t forget to tweet me your feedback on this article @cl_ftbl