Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into nine positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 3-5-2/5-3-2 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Right Wingback
Central Defenders
Left Wingback
Central Defensive Midfielder
Central Midfielders
Centre Forward
Striker
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round 25 Premier League clash versus Manchester City would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08
Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into nine positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 3-5-2/5-3-2 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Right Wingback
Central Defenders
Left Wingback
Central Defensive Midfielder
Central Midfielders
Centre Forward
Striker
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round of 32 Europa League clash versus Benfica would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08
Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into nine positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 3-5-2/5-3-2 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Right Wingback
Central Defenders
Left Wingback
Central Defensive Midfielder
Central Midfielders
Centre Forward
Striker
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round 24 Premier League clash versus Leeds would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08
Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into nine positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 4-2-3-1 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Right Fullback
Central Defenders
Left Fullback
Central Defensive Midfielders
Right Attacking Midfielder
Central Attacking Midfielder
Left Attacking Midfielder
Striker
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round 22 Premier League clash versus Wolverhampton Wolves would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08
Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into nine positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 4-1-2-3 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Right Fullback
Central Defenders
Left Fullback
Central Defensive Midfielder
Central Midfielders
Right Winger
Left Winger
Centre Forward
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round 21 Premier League clash versus Manchester United would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08
Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into nine positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 4-1-2-3 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Right Fullback
Central Defenders
Left Fullback
Central Defensive Midfielder
Central Midfielders
Right Winger
Left Winger
Centre Forward
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round 20 Premier League clash versus Southampton would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08
Arsenal’s Technical Director Edu, has been caught out contradicting himself regarding Arsenal’s recruitment and retention strategy.
Recently Edu overhauled the club’s scouting network, and stated that Arsenal would be working “a lot more” with StatDNA, Arsenal’s in-house data and analytics company, as part of the club’s revamp of recruitment. However, his comments have not been reflected in Arsenal recent recruitment and retention decisions to release Sokratis and sign Matt Ryan of Brighton.
Based on the on-field production of Arsenal’s currently contracted central defenders (from those seasons throughout the individual player’s professional careers, where the player has started at least 15 league games in Europe’s top 5 leagues in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive)) Arsenal have two players in Mustafi and Sokratis, who can legitimately lay claim to having a sufficiently productive performance record to warrant selection as two of the club’s senior central defenders.
As for the club’s other options in central defence, while its unfair to judge Mavropanos, Holding, Saliba and Gabriel, as all four players have insufficient professional experience in any of Europe’s top 5 leagues, to appropriately assess their performances, the propensity of Luiz, Chambers, and Mari to win aerial duels are inferior to a number of their colleagues, and Luiz’s and Mari’s tackles per game records are similarly inferior.
In light of the above, and the critical nature of defence meaning that there is a strong argument that Arsenal should be aiming to recruit the most productive central defenders available to fill those senior central defender roles, it would have been logical, and in line with Edu’s recent comments, for Arsenal to retain at least Mustafi and Sokratis, as two of the club’s senior central defenders.
Despite this, the club has made the decisions to first exclude Sokratis from the senior team and now release him, in addition to effectively side-lining Mustafi by failing to select the German international when fit.
Given Sokratis’ statistical superiority in contast to Arsenal’s other options in central defence, the club’s decision to release the player seems to be far from based on the statistical profile of the Greek defender, which was espoused by Edu as a key pillar in Arsenal’s contemporary recruitment approach.
In fact, taking into account the relative on field productivity of Arsenal’s central defensive options, the comparative key performance indicator data (from Whoscored.com) of central defenders competing in Europe’s top 5 leagues, and eliminating those players who are contracted to clubs competing in the 2020/21 Champions League, there is a strong argument that Arsenal should in fact have been aiming during this transfer window to retain Sokratis and Mustafi, sell Mari, Luiz, Chambers, as well as the unproven Holding, Mavropanos and Saliba, and recruit at least Salif Sane of Schalke and Michael Hector of Fulham, to serve as the club 4 senior central defenders.
Similarly, the club’s decision to loan in Matt Ryan from Brighton, could hardly be considered sound, based on Ryan’s statistical performances in the three seasons where he has started at least 15 league games (consecutive or non-consecutive) in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
Using Whoscored.com’s accurate, respected and well-known performance ratings, Ryan has an average rating of 6.61 over the three seasons in question. Comparing that to Arsenal pre-existing goalkeeping options, and while it’s unfair to judge Runarsson’s suitability, as the player has not had sufficient professional experience to appropriately assess his performances, Bernd Leno has a substantially superior average rating of 6.77. Ryan’s inadequacy is even more telling, when you consider the number of superior goalkeepers to Leno, who are currently plying their trade in Europe’s top 5 leagues and who are not in a team which qualified for this season’s Champions League.
In light of that, and the critical nature of defence meaning that there is a strong argument that Arsenal should be aiming to recruit the most productive goalkeepers available to fill those two senior goalkeeping roles, it would have be logical for Arsenal to not recruit Ryan, sell Leno and the unproven Runarsson, and recruit Cragno of Cagliari and ex-Gunner Lukasz Fabianski of West Ham, to serve as the club’s two senior goalkeepers.
As the saying goes, insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. Based on Edu and Arsenal’s most recent recruitment decisions, and their continued lack of focus of the statistical profile of Arsenal squad and the player market, it appears a healthy dose of insanity remains entrenched in key senior decision makers at the club.
Freddie08
Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into nine positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 4-1-2-3 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Right Fullback
Central Defenders
Left Fullback
Central Defensive Midfielder
Central Midfielders
Right Winger
Left Winger
Centre Forward
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round 4 FA Cup clash versus Southampton would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08
Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into five positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 3-5-1-1 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Defenders
Central Midfielders
Right Wide Midfielder
Left Wide Midfielder
Centre Forward
Striker
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round 19 Premier League clash versus Newcastle would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08
Following each season of the Premier League, each Arsenal player’s career-to-date performances are analysed and ranked against their internal competition.
Methodology
In assessing the on-field production and the comparative ranking of each player which comprise Arsenal’s senior squad, each player is allocated into five positional categories (with some players allocated to multiple positional categories due to their perceived versatility).
Those positional categories consist of:
Once categorised, each player’s output in defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for their respective positional category has then been considered, using data sourced from Whoscored.com.
To provide a realistic picture of each individual player’s on-field production, only data from those seasons, throughout the player’s professional career, where the player has started at least 15 league games in at least two seasons (consecutive or non-consecutive) was considered. Where a player has not met that criteria, their productivity data was not assessed.
Different weightings were then assigned to the KPI data considered for each positional group based on the assumption that Arsenal adopt a 3-5-1-1 formation and the cornerstones of Arsenal’s tactical approach is as follows:
The findings of the aforementioned analysis, provide an invaluable insight as to:
Internal player rankings
The player rankings by position are as follows:
Goalkeeper
Defenders
Central Midfielders
Right Wide Midfielder
Left Wide Midfielder
Centre Forward
Striker
Formation and line-up
Based on:
the 11 players which it is suggested should comprise Arsenal’s starting 11, for their Round 18 Premier League clash versus Crystal Palace would appear to be as follows:
Freddie08