At what point or under what circumstances do you say enough is enough with players regarding injury, or under what circumstances are you prepared to keep a player with a dodgy injury record?
I can see that if they really are a special player and when they play they lift you to another level you could argue that it's worth having them even if they only play half the games in the season, but does that apply to any of our guys?
Looking at the PL/CL stats for this season for our midfield starts(sub) and % of games started (out of a possible 13 games):
Henderson 11(1) 85%
Keita 7(2) 54%
Fabinho 7(2) 54%
Milner 7(1) 54%
Jones 4(3) 30%
Elliott 3(1) 23%
Thiago 2(3) 15%
Ox 1(7) 8%
Henderson has played in most games, Fabinho and Naby played in about 70% and started just over half Milner just a bit less. Thiago has been involved in just over a third of games and started in about 15% of them.
Coming into the season you would probably expect out first choice midfield to be 3 from Henderson, Fabinho, Keita and Thiago - assuming we start with 3 midfielders which is generally the case those 4 have taken 27 out of a possible 39 starting spots meaning our first choice four have only started 70% of games.
Last season for comparison (out of 48) some of these guys will have played games at CB:
Wijnaldum 42(5) 88%
Fabinho 35(3) 73%
Henderson 24(3) 50%
Thiago 22(6) 46%
Jones 18(11) 38%
Milner 15(17) 31%
Keita 9(7) 19%
Shaqiri 6(13) 13%
Ox 2(14) 4%
Wijnaldum played more or less every game, Fabinho started about 75%, Henderson and Thiago about 50%, Keita about 20% Despite at times there being 4 or 5 midfielders on the pitch (playing in either midfield or at CB).
Obviously it's early in this season so the stats aren't based on alot of games but looking back at last year as well (you could probably do the same for previous years but I expect the picture would be very similar). With Wijnaldum gone you aren't surprised that a number of players are only starting around half of the games, despite you considering them first choice. You look at where the extra starts are going this season and it seems Milner is the main beneficiary, he has already started half as many games in the first 13 this season as he did in the whole of last season, given that he is almost 36 that doesn't seem like it should be part of the plan. Ok maybe you can argue that Elliott would have been a regular started had he not got injured and that was the plan. But looking at the numbers it never looked as though we were going to be able to pick a regular settled midfield even picking 3 from a group of 4 which you regard as your regulars. I find it baffling that with all the analytics that we are supposedly into no-one has really picked up on this when it seems obvious to most of us, without digging into it.
I can see that if they really are a special player and when they play they lift you to another level you could argue that it's worth having them even if they only play half the games in the season, but does that apply to any of our guys?
Looking at the PL/CL stats for this season for our midfield starts(sub) and % of games started (out of a possible 13 games):
Henderson 11(1) 85%
Keita 7(2) 54%
Fabinho 7(2) 54%
Milner 7(1) 54%
Jones 4(3) 30%
Elliott 3(1) 23%
Thiago 2(3) 15%
Ox 1(7) 8%
Henderson has played in most games, Fabinho and Naby played in about 70% and started just over half Milner just a bit less. Thiago has been involved in just over a third of games and started in about 15% of them.
Coming into the season you would probably expect out first choice midfield to be 3 from Henderson, Fabinho, Keita and Thiago - assuming we start with 3 midfielders which is generally the case those 4 have taken 27 out of a possible 39 starting spots meaning our first choice four have only started 70% of games.
Last season for comparison (out of 48) some of these guys will have played games at CB:
Wijnaldum 42(5) 88%
Fabinho 35(3) 73%
Henderson 24(3) 50%
Thiago 22(6) 46%
Jones 18(11) 38%
Milner 15(17) 31%
Keita 9(7) 19%
Shaqiri 6(13) 13%
Ox 2(14) 4%
Wijnaldum played more or less every game, Fabinho started about 75%, Henderson and Thiago about 50%, Keita about 20% Despite at times there being 4 or 5 midfielders on the pitch (playing in either midfield or at CB).
Obviously it's early in this season so the stats aren't based on alot of games but looking back at last year as well (you could probably do the same for previous years but I expect the picture would be very similar). With Wijnaldum gone you aren't surprised that a number of players are only starting around half of the games, despite you considering them first choice. You look at where the extra starts are going this season and it seems Milner is the main beneficiary, he has already started half as many games in the first 13 this season as he did in the whole of last season, given that he is almost 36 that doesn't seem like it should be part of the plan. Ok maybe you can argue that Elliott would have been a regular started had he not got injured and that was the plan. But looking at the numbers it never looked as though we were going to be able to pick a regular settled midfield even picking 3 from a group of 4 which you regard as your regulars. I find it baffling that with all the analytics that we are supposedly into no-one has really picked up on this when it seems obvious to most of us, without digging into it.
fair play for doing the leg work on that, great post 
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