Right Back
The results of the right back comparison support Fabio Capello’s choice of making Glen Johnson his first choice right back as he comes out 10 points better off than Micah Richards and 16 points better than Kyle Walker in this comparison.
The results of this comparison may show that Glen Johnson comes out on top but there are only small differences in a lot of the statistics.
This is the case in the amount of ground 50-50s that are won as although Johnson comes out second in this statistic he has only won 1% more ground 50-50s than Walker and only 1% less than Richards. He also comes out second in tackle success rate but again the differences between him and the player who comes out on top (Walker) is only 6.25%.
The main area where Johnson impresses though is going forward as he creates a chance for his team every 88 minutes which is 9 minutes more often than Walker and an impressive 57 minutes more often than Richards.
Johnson also comes out on top in pass completion rate and crossing accuracy but again only comes out on top by a slight difference, as he has completed 0.69% more passes than his nearest rival Richards and his crosses have found their target 1% more of the time than both Richards and Walker.
So, although Johnson should be considered as England’s first choice right back for the European Championships, based on the Opta Statistics above, Richards or Walker would make a more than adequate replacement.
Right Back Choice: Glen Johnson
Centre Backs
The results of this comparison may surprise some people as based on this seasons statistics former England captain John Terry would not make the starting line-up.
Joleon Lescott comes out as the clear winner from this comparison with 21 points with Rio Ferdinand and John Terry following closely behind on 13 and 10 points.
Lescott has won a very impressive 92.11% of his tackles this season which is 4.61% better than his closest rival in this statistic Chris Smalling and a staggering 21.9% better than John Terry. He has also won 77% of his aerial 50-50s this season which is 1% better than Jagielka, 3% better than Terry and 7% better than Ferdinand. He has also not made a single defensive error this season, which is quite impressive considering Terry makes a defensive error every 780 minutes and Ferdinand makes one every 706 minutes.
Lescott has also conceded the least amount of goals per game this season as well as Man City have only conceded 0.77 goals per game when he has played. This is the best statistic in this comparison with only Jones and Ferdinand coming close, conceding 0.86 and 0.88 goals per game.
John Terry comes out on top in pass completion rate as 90.85% of his passes find a teammate, which is marginally better than Rio Ferdinand who completes 89.81% of his passes and Joleon Lescott who completes 87.92% of his passes.
As well as completing 89.81% of his passes Rio Ferdinand only loses possession of the ball every 423 minutes which is 163 minutes longer than John Terry, 183 minutes longer than Gary Cahill and a staggering 268 minutes longer than Joleon Lescott.
To conclude, Lescott and Ferdinand should beEngland’s first choice centre back partnership for Euro 2012 as they both come out on top in the comparison. Lescott is an obvious choice as he has made more successful tackles than anyone else, won more aerial 50-50s and conceded fewer goals per game than everyone else, while Ferdinand has also won a high percentage of tackles he has made, won 70% of his ground 50-50s and rarely loses possession of the ball.
John Terry comes close to making the starting line up but his tackle success rate of 70.21% and the amount of goals he conceded per game (1.08) lets him down.
Centre Back Choices: Joleon Lescott and Rio Ferdinand
So far the England back four and goalkeeper for Euro 2012 consists of:
Stay Tuned in the next few days for Part 2: England’s Midfield
All of the stats from this article have been taken from the Opta Stats Centre at EPLIndex.com – Subscribe Now (Includes author privileges!) See Demo’s and videos about the Stats Centre & read about new additions to the stats centre.
