THE GAME OF STATS

On transfer deadline day, Arsenal broke their transfer record to sign Mesut Ozil, a world class player with an eye (in his case two eyes) for a pass and as usual, statistics started showing up on the German international. I saw one that read: Most assists for club and country since 1 August 2010: Ozil (91) Messi (82), Mata (72), Ribery (60), Cesc (56) and i began to consider what this meant.

Whenever there is a football related argument, statistics sometimes help determine the winner of the argument, they have become an important part of the game for football fans. For strikers it is the number of goals scored and the goals-to-games ratio that are looked into, for midfielders it is the number of assists (and sometimes goals), for defenders it is the number of clean sheets and the number of tackles per game, for Goalkeepers it is the number of clean sheets and saves per game. But are statistics as important as we make them? Do they tell the full story? Or are they just there to make some of my many miniature/hobbit-like friends look taller during arguments?

If you ask some football fans, they'll tell you football is about entertainment, ask some others they'll say it's about winning. I think football, is about winning entertainment and managers are expected to bring this winning entertainment by assembling the right team of players.
There are three types of players, there are Players that have the ability to go past opponents with ease, do tricks that leave the opposing players flat footed and/or struggling to catch their breathe but have no end products. These players make excellent highlights, but they flatter to deceive.
The second type of players, go about their business quietly but effectively, solid, unspectacular with very little if any inventiveness, boring.
Then there are players that combine effectiveness with elegance, these are the players that give long lasting memories, they find that killer pass when it will be easier to find the needle in a hay stack, the ones that turn a game on its head in one move, they get the home crowd on their feet, and even opposing fans can't help but appreciate them.

Every manager will like their team full of type three players, but when that is not possible, managers look to balance their teams with the other types of players. This is where statistics are important they tell you how balanced your team is, what type of player you need, to improve and who should be sent packing.

Stats, Do they tell all?
To get the full picture you have to look at the stats on every player in the team because football is a team sport and the actions of any one player is dependent on the actions of his team mates. Say a team wants to sign a Mesut Ozil, when looking at the number of goals he has made, you'll also be looking at the activities of his team mates that led to the goals. But even if these kind of players are available to the team buying, all things can't be equal, you cannot have the same type of playing conditions in the same team for different games not to talk of different teams and as we know, in football even the smallest details make a huge difference.

So even when the stats tell you why you need a Busquets for your Xavi, an Arturo Vidal for your Pirlo, a Stewart downing for your Andy Caroll or a Juan Mata to get your Torres firing they don't guarantee successful outcomes.

In conclusion, statistics are as important as they are to the game, don't tell the full story and they certainly don't make Hobbits taller.