Two interesting trends are emerging now: 1.Valencia accounts for approximately half of Rooney's headed goals. 2. Rooney scores an inordinate amount of goals by 'magically' appearing right in the middle of the box, unmarked with only the keeper to beat. An aside: Only 1 goal of all 8 was played in from the left side of the pitch.. nd even that one was played in by Fletcher.. I haven't explored the amount of goals converted from left-sided plays, but I think even this little tidbit says a lot about the left side for us. But anyway, it says an awful lot about Rooney's movement that he can keep doing this, and it also tells me that he is slipping his man so well that for that moment in time he is completely free of a marker. That is extremely rare. Most headers are contested be they a goal or not, they're mostly met by a contesting CB. Can you begin to imagine how much more dangerous we could be with a consistent crossing threat from the left? It also begs the question of how much more threatening we would be if we had a deep midfielder or another forward who could also get into the box and latch onto headers. As for Valencia and Giggs. It's impressive that Ryan still sits atop the chart even though he's out and hasn't been featuring much since January, anyway. It's also impressive that Valencia keeps chugging along and providing as he does. By the end of the season, he could well have 25 assists. That would be a phenomenal return for his debut season.
Rooney also scored with a header in the pre-season friendly against Valencia CF. It was Antonio's first assist in a United shirt.
Premier League table 'minus each team's top scorer' Team Top scorer (goals) Points change New points New position (change)
Berbatov deserves credit as well. It seems like at least half of the assists that Valencia gives Rooney were originally passed to Valencia from Berba
very true. If that secondary assist thing ever got off the ground - I'm look at you, Cr7to and johno - it'd be interesting to see who would lead that chart.
Evra will finish with more assists than either Scholes or Carrick - possibly more than them combined.
I am pretty sure ...we have about 15+ more goals then we did last year at this point! Where are all the goals going to come from eh ?
Well NM, I don't think that anyone in here had the answer to that in the summer. Personally I was expecting Nani to step up and chip in with something similar to double digits. Instead he went AWOL for 6 months...
Valencia finally goes to the top of the assists chart outright. Should be an interesting close to the season between Giggs, Nani and Valencia for that number 1 spot. I expect a resurgence from us in the league and some big performances, so hopefully we'll see some assist tallies improve. It would be great if Valencia can get six more and hit 20 for the season.
Top four teams scores / assists in the prem makes interesting reading (top 20). From http://www.premierleague.com/page/Statistics/0,,12306,00.html ... Goals (position, player, team, goals) 2 Didier Drogba Chelsea 25 7 Frank Lampard Chelsea 17 13 Florent Malouda Chelsea 11 20 Nicolas Anelka Chelsea 8 1 Wayne Rooney Man Utd 26 10 Dimitar Berbatov Man Utd 12 14 Andrey Arshavin Arsenal 9 8 Francesc Fabregas Arsenal 15 4 Carlos Tevez Manchester City 20 11 Emmanuel Adebayor Manchester City 11 15 Craig Bellamy Manchester City 9 Assists 2 Frank Lampard Chelsea 14 4 Didier Drogba Chelsea 10 6 Nicolas Anelka Chelsea 9 15 Florent Malouda Chelsea 8 5 Ryan Giggs Man Utd 10 10 Luis Nani Man Utd 9 11 Antonio Valencia Man Utd 9 1 Francesc Fabregas Arsenal 15 7 Craig Bellamy Manchester City 9 17 Gareth Barry Manchester City 7 19 Carlos Tevez Manchester City 7 20 Shaun Wright-Phillips Manchester City 7 Conclusion to be drawn from this is that we have been a bit of a one man team. Our wingers are contributing assists but not goals, likewise our midfield. Has made us a bit too predictable. We either need to hold out hopes for Fletch or Gibson scoring more (perhaps sign someone solid to play with them such as Milner or Velosso) and sign someone to play like Bellamy/Anelka (ie occassional winger who is a geniune goal threat) perhaps Suarez. Given Ribbery, Villa etc. would likely cost too much (fee and more importantly wages).
That's what irritates me, is that defensively we really are top quality with the best defensive record in the league this year despite such a ridiculous number of injures (iirc only Evra has started 20 league games out of any of our backline, GKs, or Fletcher/Hargreaves), while going forward we are lacking when Rooeny isn't around. Scholes/Giggs are 35 and 36 ffs, they can't be relied on to be able to contribute consistently/play much. Valencia is probably our next most reliable attacking player after Wayne, but is more of a provider than a scorer (though if he can get used to using his left foot and a more composed he could be a good 12-15 a season type) so he needs others to be doing their bit as well. Nani has shown that vital 'gamebreaker' quality and has improved a good dela in the last 4-5 months; hopefully he can build on it but there is still a distance to go. Park is not going to win you many games on is own. Berbatov... the less said the better. On the plus side we have a lot of young attacking players who have the potential to develop into legitimate stars, but it will be a good 2-3 years before we even know if most of them will be here to reach it or not.