NUFC 2012-13 Plus/Minus Stats

[timeEd32]

The lack of action this weekend led to some boredom, which eventually led to this. For those that don't know, +/- is a major stat in hockey. A player gets a +1 if they are on the field for a goal scored and a -1 for a goal against. Simple as that. I've seen a couple people translate it to football, but it's not very prevalent. There are some flaws, primarily the fact that it's common for players to play an entire game which can skew the numbers. However, it still gives some interesting insights with a large enough sample size.

 

I know a few people cringe at the "Americanized" statistical threads, but hopefully some of you find this interesting. If there's any interest I'll keep updating this throughout the season.

 

(Ignore the Excel cursors - too lazy to go back and remove right now)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8378/8482982779_8bea2c8647.jpg		http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8369/8482982731_4b8fc57889.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8249/8482982907_ff06f3cb05.jpg		http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8239/8482982837_1c0745f977.jpg

 

A few observations...

• Overall, Santon doesn't fare well because he's played the largest percentage of PL minutes and missed out on the best EL outings.
  
• Cabaye is really f***ing important
  
• Bigi and especially Jonas look pretty good by this measure
  
• Tiote looks like the weakest link of the regular PL players
  
• Cisse and Obertan have killed it in the EL.
  
• Ba was -9 for us in the PL, but he scored over 50% of the team's goals while he was on the pitch. You could conclude that this is a flaw in the metric or that he was detrimental to the team as a whole despite his goals.
  

 

[Village Idiot]

There's lots of problems with using +/-1 in football. The main thing, apart from the fact that most players will complete the full game, is that the larger number of players makes it a bit iffy to make them as accountable for all phases of play as you can with hockey. Also the much lower scoring in football makes it harder to get a good enough sample.

 

It's a fun statistic though. Must be my years living in the US but I do love yanktastic stats.

 

 

[Beren]

Yankstats are good fun. I see the appeal. This particular one translates very poorly to football IMO.

 

If we won our next game 26-0 we'd still behind Boo-Rendan's Liverpool on goal difference (well, that and 9 points). This is a sad statistic.

[54]

Yankstats are good fun. I see the appeal. This particular one translates very poorly to football IMO.

 

If we won our next game 26-0 we'd still behind Boo-Rendan's Liverpool on goal difference (well, that and 9 points). This is a sad statistic.

How would winning 26-0 against Metalist, help improve our goal difference in the league? 

 

 

[Beren]

SEE!

 

 

 

[Taylor Swift]

I love it, Ed.

[timeEd32]

I love it, Ed.

 

I knew I could count on you.

 

There's lots of problems with using +/-1 in football. The main thing, apart from the fact that most players will complete the full game, is that the larger number of players makes it a bit iffy to make them as accountable for all phases of play as you can with hockey. Also the much lower scoring in football makes it harder to get a good enough sample.

 

It's a fun statistic though. Must be my years living in the US but I do love yanktastic stats.

 

 

Agreed, but I still think it paints a decent picture. I think it's most useful comparing players in the same position.