In an age of human history where technology is developing faster than ever and social media remains the number one avenue of communication amongst our species, it’s still interesting to note that football stats and metrics can still be as confusing as ever.
Depending what stats you look at, Mesut Ozil could be perceived as a better player than the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Paul Scholes and Zinedine Zidane combined as shown in the tweet below…
Career Assists:
Mesut Özil: 198
Bergkamp, Scholes & Zidane combined: 189
Incredible record. pic.twitter.com/cwia0NrPgM
— SPORF (@Sporf) October 24, 2017
Yet even in 2019, some stats can still appear to be misleading, and The Telegraph have been the latest publication to fall victim to this in a sense by showing a graph between Southampton centre-back Jannik Vestergaard and current Ballon d’Or favourite Virgil van Dijk as two defenders who have had similar performances this season.
Will Hasenhuttl go big on January signings?YesNo |
With the Danish centre-back being criticised by supporters this campaign for his poor performances and being a focal part in a Ralph Hasenhuttl defence that has shipped the most goals all season as the Premier League table shows.
Indeed, the graph does little to show that Vestergaard has been good this season but rather display just how badly the Saints require defensive improvements in the January transfer window, something the club are looking into according to The Mirror via HITC.
After the 9-0 defeat to Leicester City earlier this season, a game in which Vestergaard bagged a 5.2 rating from WhoScored for his defensive performance, it was abundantly clear that the Saints need to spend money on the backline if they are to escape from the jaws of relegation.
A good defence can do wonders for a team like Southampton who are in need of quality at the back to ensure they can keep clean sheets in the Premier League, and although Vestergaard is putting up similar numbers to Van Dijk, the results haven’t been there to show that the Danish defender is nowhere near the Liverpool star.
