McKennas utilisation of his forwards this season

[hallamblue]

We have now played 28 games in the Premier League, and I thought I’d have a look at the breakdown of how McKenna has actually used his forwards over this season, to date.

Forwards:
Delap, Hirst, Szmodics, Broadhead, Philogene, J.Clarke, Hutchinson, Chaplin, Burns & Ogbene
………….. Lge Apps ( starts) … (Sub) goals ……………..goals ratio
Delap…………………25, ………(25),…….(1)……….9……………………..0.36
Szmodics……………13, ………(23),.…..(6)……...4……………………..0.31
Philogene,………….3, ………(3) ………(1)……….2……………………...0.66
Hirst………………….1, ….…..(1)………(11),……..1……………………….1.0
Broadhead…………4,……...(4),……….(6)……….0………………………….0
J.Clarke…………….7………..(7)……...(14)……..0………………………….0
Hutchinson………25…………(25)………(0)…….…3………………………..0.12
Burns………….….12………….(12)……..(6)……….0………………………….0
Ogbene……………3…………..(3)……….(0)……….0………………………...0
Chaplin……………7……………(7)……….(8)……….1………………………….0.14


Combinations number of times used.

Delap, Clarke, Hutch, Burns (x3)
Delap, Szmodics, Hutch, Burns. (x3)
Delap, Chaplin, Hutch, Burns (x2)
Delap, Szmodics, Chaplin, Hutch (x2)
Hirst, Szmodics, Chaplin, Hutch (x1 (Brentford game)


Various other combinations for remainder of season used x1 rotating round these players including use of
Philogene, J.Clarke, Enciso. Demonstrating that McKenna really doesn’t know his best forward line


Use of Delap & Hirst together never.

Hirst has made just 1 start, and scored a goal. All of his 11 sub appearances will have been from 80+ mins onwards.

Delap has made 25 starts and scored 9 goals. Of those 9 goals, 7 where in the first half of the season, and just 2 since January.

Anyway, I think it interesting and when you look at the goals ratios. WHY isn’t McKenna using his more experienced players ( Szmodics, Hirst) more often, instead of continuing with the two 20yr olds Philogene, and Clarke.
The lack of use of Hirst and Szmodics is criminal given we can’t hit a barn door atm. These players would bring more experience, know how, and physical strength to that front line, which Clarke, and Philogene clearly don’t have atm. It’s about staying up isn’t it? ….not giving £20m players a run out?

The best example of how I feel McKenna should be trying to use the forwards, is the Brentford away game. We 4an them ragged in that first half and really should have had at least 4-5 goals we were that mobile and interactive along that front line. Then Delap explodes off the bench in the second half and they couldn’t live with him. THATS what I want to see McKenna try again. We have the players to do it

[EveryoneKnowsaDave]

I agree about Hirst. Deserves a start.

Szmodics who is now injured, should've been played at 10 but more often than not ueed as left despite being leading scorer in the championship last season.

[Bluemike]

I agree about Hirst. Deserves a start.

Szmodics who is now injured, should've been played at 10 but more often than not ueed as left despite being leading scorer in the championship last season.

He started at Forest, apart from the goal did hardly anything except concede a stupid free kick from which they scored.

[EveryoneKnowsaDave]

That's one game.... but he started, played proper minutes and he scored the goal that took it through to penalties. Not sure how that can be used as a criticism.

I'm talking about season trend anyway as per the thread. He's not started a league game.

[Bluemike]

Because the only way that would happen is if Delap was dropped or injured because as we know they won't both play for some reason.

[mendipblue]

It's got nothing to do with KMck not knowing his best forward line 🫣 it's got more to do with having to change because of the amount of injuries we have incurred to different players at different times. if Ogbene,, szmodics, Burns, Broadhead,Chaplin, Hirst and Hutchinson had all stayed fit it might of been easier

[ITFC2024]

It's got nothing to do with KMck not knowing his best forward line 🫣 it's got more to do with having to change because of the amount of injuries we have incurred to different players at different times. if Ogbene,, szmodics, Burns, Broadhead,Chaplin, Hirst and Hutchinson had all stayed fit it might of been easier

I have a better answer. It’s got more to do with none of our players being good enough for the Prem. Name one player in our squad who would start for the top 10 teams in the PL?

[Mauswara]

It's got nothing to do with KMck not knowing his best forward line 🫣 it's got more to do with having to change because of the amount of injuries we have incurred to different players at different times. 🤷‍♂️ if Ogbene,, szmodics, Burns, Broadhead,Chaplin, Hirst and Hutchinson had all stayed fit it might of been easier 🤔

I have a better answer. It’s got more to do with none of our players being good enough for the Prem. Name one player in our squad who would start for the top 10 teams in the PL?

Muric!

[marko69]

It's got nothing to do with KMck not knowing his best forward line 🫣 it's got more to do with having to change because of the amount of injuries we have incurred to different players at different times. if Ogbene,, szmodics, Burns, Broadhead,Chaplin, Hirst and Hutchinson had all stayed fit it might of been easier

I have a better answer. It’s got more to do with none of our players being good enough for the Prem. Name one player in our squad who would start for the top 10 teams in the PL?

Muric!

Arguably, yes. The defence are better and clear danger before Muric needs to get involved. So, yep, Muric!

Agreed on the injury issue. Have no idea if Ipswich Town have had more bad luck in that area than any other team, (got to think all teams are on a par) …… which basically brings it down to talent itself. Just not quite EPL rated squad yet. Which was the case pre-Kick-off back in August.

[hallamblue]

Injuries have no doubt been a factor to a certain extent. But as an example, until his very recent ankle injury, Szmodics has been available to play, as has Hirst, and Broadhead (has he ever been injured ?), rarely play as a first option in that front line. So it beggers the question of McKenna, WHY doesnt he pick them , especially given our inability to score goals? He has rarely if ever played the more experienced forwards together in the team, even though they are fir ...because they are sat on the bench, therefore must be fit !

[ITFC2024]

One more comment about Muric. We were actually defending quite well at the beginning of the season until the ManCity match when Muric gifted them their second goal. That mistake created an air of uncertainty for the defenders and Muric followed it with many more blunders. I never felt we should have paid 10-mil for Muric and his poor form exasperated the seemingly bad decision to pay that much for him. I can’t wait until he departs for good!

[hallamblue]

These stats have been done by a poster on TWTD....much better than my effort I'm sure, but see what you make of it.


Based on the Axel Tuanzebe thread , here are those stats for every player who has started a game this year. I have calculated PPG in games they started, PPG in games they didn't start (sub appearances count here), then done the first number minus the second. So if the score is greater than 0, we get more points with them, and for a score less than 0, we get more points without them. Note that this exercise is most useful for players who have done about half the games, as if they have only played 1 or 2 games then it can be heavily influenced by a freak result, and the same if they have only missed 1 or 2 games. So here are the results

EDIT: (in brackets is the number of games played out of 26, or the number of games missed: whichever is fewer. To demonstrate that the higher the number, the more useful the data is. So the maximum number here is 13):

1. Liam Delap +0.708 (2)
2. Sam Morsy +0.562 (5)
3. Jens Cajuste +0.413 (10)
4. Nathan Broadhead +0.409 (4)
5. Dara O'Shea +0.362 (3)
6. Conor Townsend +0.360 (1)
7. Cameron Burgess +0.238 (10)
8. Wes Burns +0.179 (12)
9. Axel Tuanzebe +0.179 (12)
10. Omari Hutchinson +0.167 (2)
11. Harry Clarke +0.114 (4)
12. Sammie Szmodics +0.077 (13)
13. Aro Muric +0.042 (8)
14. Ben Johnson +0.020 (9)
15. Christian Walton +0.017 (6)
16. Cheo Ogbene +0.014 (3)

17. Luke Woolfenden -0.042 (8)
18. Conor Chaplin -0.113 (7)
19. Julio Enciso -0.167 (2)
20. Alex Palmer -0.167 (2)
21. Jacob Greaves -0.238 (10)
22. Leif Davis -0.360 (1)
23. Kalvin Phillips -0.440 (12)
24. Jack Clarke -0.633 (6)
25. George Hirst -0.680 (1)
26. Jack Taylor -0.680 (1)
27. Massimo Luongo -0.708 (2)
28. Jaden Philogene -0.708 (2)
29. Ben Godfrey -0.708 (2)

I would say these numbers make the best reading for Sam Morsy, Jens Cajuste and Cameron Burgess, and are not so good for Kalvin Phillips, Jacob Greaves and Jack Clarke.

[EveryoneKnowsaDave]

Best put Muric back in goal then and select the best other ten people to start which fits nicely in a 4-2-3-1 although Wes would need a zimmer frame at the moment.

[Bluemike]

Yes bring back Muric, the guy who almost single handedly cost us a good 8 to 10 points at least.

[EveryoneKnowsaDave]

Seemingly our best performing goalkeeper

[Bluemike]

Shows how crap stats are

[The Odious Mr Rossi]

Shows how crap stats are

exactly - a lot of managers seem totally pre-occupied with stats.
I suppose they have their place, but cannot ever provide the total picture.
I mean, they can show how many passes/shots/blocks a player has made each game, how many times he has been on the winning side, etc. But they take no account of what the weather was like, what a player had for breakfast, whether or not the player is in the middle of a bad argument with his wife, or whether or not he has got his leg over recently - all of which will affect performance on the day.

[hallamblue]

Surely the whole of the modern game is now driven by statistical data?

But I agree, statistics only tell you part of a picture ...and they can be manipulated, or skwed depending on the data set used to make your point.