A season review in stats

[Steve Mackan]

I've just published a piece on The Pinch digging into United’s 25/26 season through the numbers. One for the nerds, of which I know there are a few.

The TL;DR is that 13th-place reflects a bang average finish as per the league table, but underneath that, there's a much more volatile spread of performances/results, which are anything other than average (for very good and very bad). That makes it (IMO) a fascinating season once you swallow down a lot of emotions about the team.

It remains crazy to me that from the day after QPR (H) until 28 February, we took more points than any other team in the Championship over a 20-game spell — yet still finished where we finished. Anyhow, I've broken it down into 6 main chunks:

• Outcome vs Performance
• Creating Chances
• Defensive Control
• Possession & Territory
• Game-State
• Individual Impact

In writing up and creating a S-tonne of graphics, I'm aware I got bogged down in what I thought was interesting, so I'd love to hear any thoughts on what is missed here.

 

[knowsnowt]

First.

 

[blade too long]

thirst

 

[Chief]

Great read, but I do dispute one section;

Blades touch more boxes?

Not in my experience.

 

[Steve Mackan]

Great read, but I do dispute one section;

Blades touch more boxes?

Not in my experience.

You're getting something wrong in build-up

 

[Selly]

Great read, but I do dispute one section;

Blades touch more boxes?

Not in my experience.

Too direct - you need to probe down the wings and through the centre - if you try and pump it into the box too early it will simply get knocked away...

 

[Balham]

Top work Steve Mackan .

Interesting to see that Djibi Soumaré was one of our better midfielders in terms of progressing the ball and winning it back. The kid has something.

 

[Glenluce Blade]

Ridiculous bit of work from Steve Mackan Even I understood it and I'm very much an eye test aficionado (despite my best efforts)

 

[finlaytheblade]

Ridiculous bit of work from Steve Mackan Even I understood it and I'm very much an eye test aficionado (despite my best efforts)

There's a long article in the pinch which is worth a read.
It seems to me if Wilder gets the surgery right and some support from the owners next season could be a good one

 

[Selly]

That's a great piece of work.

Now on this:



This looks to support the point that we fluctuated wildly - but I have no idea how different the above is to the rest of the league - is there any way to show an average fluctuation?

 

[Bladesman]

That's a great piece of work.

Now on this:

View attachment 236755

This looks to support the point that we fluctuated wildly - but I have no idea how different the above is to the rest of the league - is there any way to show an average fluctuation?

Feel a bit seasick looking at that graph.

 

[KMC-1889]

Top work Steve Mackan .

Interesting to see that Djibi Soumaré was one of our better midfielders in terms of progressing the ball and winning it back. The kid has something.

View attachment 236750

View attachment 236751

Been the only loan signing from this season I’d want to keep. If he was called Danny Smith and came out of our academy people would be raving about him.

 

[Steve Mackan]

That's a great piece of work.

Now on this:

View attachment 236755

This looks to support the point that we fluctuated wildly - but I have no idea how different the above is to the rest of the league - is there any way to show an average fluctuation?

Yeah, one thing missing here is the comparison across the league. Teams in the middle tend to fluctuate, but from what I've looked at, not to the extent that we have.

Might do a whole Championship review at some point to plot how we stacked up. Not until my square eyes have returned to circles, though

 

[Steve Mackan]

Top work Steve Mackan .

Interesting to see that Djibi Soumaré was one of our better midfielders in terms of progressing the ball and winning it back. The kid has something.

View attachment 236750

View attachment 236751

Soumare not being our player made him a luxury. Think he'll be a good Champ level midfielder one day. But not enough matches under his belt to be a real competitor in our situation.

 

[Old Programme seller]

That’s a damn good read as a report but not a damn good read from a supporters point of view (hopefully you get what I mean) my taking from it is that if Cooper had played like last season even after the poor start we may well have finished in a play off place btw I’m not blaming him.

 

[Steve Mackan]

That’s a damn good read as a report but not a damn good read from a supporters point of view (hopefully you get what I mean) my taking from it is that if Cooper had played like last season even after the poor start we may well have finished in a play off place btw I’m not blaming him.

I genuinely don't think it's THAT far away from being true. Clearly it was a poorer season than 24/25, but during 24/25, there were countless games we should've lost (Pompey at Home eg). Cooper a big differential on both counts. By no means all his fault

 

[Tarqs]

Soumare not being our player made him a luxury. Think he'll be a good Champ level midfielder one day. But not enough matches under his belt to be a real competitor in our situation.

Bit we played a totally pointless and ineffective arblaster there over him.

 

[Steve Mackan]

Bit we played a totally pointless and ineffective arblaster there over him.

Because one is our player and the other ain't. Not a huge issue with that personally

 

[Tarqs]

Because one is our player and the other ain't. Not a huge issue with that personally

But we have started Hoever quite a few times over our own.