With the news breaking on both Arsenal & Manchester United official club websites that a fee had been agreed for Robin Van Persie we thought we’d put a very quick article together to show you how similar these two players are statistically. We’re not going to make any judgements about how they will play together because Sir Alex Ferguson would have thought about that long and hard before he pushed forward with a £24 million move for the 2011/12 Premier League Top Scorer.
The first graphic we want to show you is from our upcoming new section: Top Stats. This area will show you the top players for a range of statistics which you will be able to filter and sort to your heart’s content! (This will be available in the next few weeks so keep an eye out or subscribe to our Stats Centre!)
Only three goals between van Persie and Rooney plus the minutes per goal (MPG) very close too. The minutes per shot (MPS) is unbelievably similar whilst the Minutes per shot on target is just 0.1 of a minute different! Wow. Shooting accuracy (SA%) is the same and chance conversion (CC%) close too. The only difference is the clear-cut chance conversion % but I’m not sure Sir Alex or United fans will be worried about that.
Our tweet earlier on from our @EPLIndex twitter account:
United fans will have a cracker of a combination judging by our tweeted stats earlier. They hit 57 goals between them and had 13 assists. Yes they were in different teams and rarely does a strike duo score that amount – however if they did it would all but guarantee a 20th title to Old Trafford. It’s a scary thought for the rest of the league.
The fact is that despite van Persie’s age and injury record he’s in the form of his life and hasn’t been injured for over a year. This is also a fact that a lot of supporters are forgetting – it could be the match made in heaven and why shouldn’t people think of it as a positive? The two best strikers in the league are now playing in the same side – unthinkable a year ago.
The table below has some more analysis from our upcoming Top Stats area which shows where Rooney and van Persie aren’t so similar – i.e. where they score their goals from.
Pretty self-explanatory – percentages of their goals for where they score their goals from?
LF% – Percentage via Left Foot, RF% – Right Foot, HD% – Head, OP% – Other body Part, IB% – inside box, OB% – outside Box and PN% – goals via Penalty!
Rooney with a high percentage from his right foot whilst van Persie seems to score with either foot and Rooney also gets more with his head too. The stats also show that van Persie is more of a predator in the box with 93% goals from that area whilst Rooney almost strikes with a fifth of his goals coming from outside of the 18 yard box. Rooney also scores a higher percentage via penalties – a whopping 22%.
We hope you enjoyed the brief analysis - we would appreciate any comments and please do share the article if you are impressed with the similarities shown in the first table!
RvP: See you on the same team next year Wayne!
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Categories: Arsenal (NN), EPL Index Featured Article, EPL Index Player Profiles, EPL Index Statistical Comparisons, Manchester Utd
Tags: AFC, AFC Stats, EPL, epl opta stats, EPL Stats, MUFC, MUFC Stats, Robin van Persie Opta Stats, RVP joins Manchester United, van Persie and Rooney Opta Stats, van Persie and Rooney stats, van Persie joins Man Utd, van persie joins Manchester United, van Persie Opta Stats, Van Persie Stats, Wayne Rooney Opta Stats, Wayne Rooney Stats
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it just shows RVP taps in a lot of cutbacks from gervinho and walcott. Utd don’t play that way.
Strange, but why does Arsene always sell the club captain? Sol, Viera, Henry, Cesc, and now van P! Please tell me why!
Good point – didn’t know that!
Man City is the reason maybe..
At least, William Gallas waited until he was stripped off of his captaincy before moving. But he went too.
Being a captain is d first req. for AW 2sel…. Welcome HOME VEE PEE! U ar a gr8 playa who dsav trophies… De’ve been cheating u rvp. Welcome 2 d theatre of dreams…. Where justice will b done 2u. Enjoy ur stay @ OT….
I hope TV5 or Kozzer rupture his ligaments in a crunching tackle when the teams meet at the Emirates. RVP – R.I.P……
Why is it that the coach is too much found of money.i mean him and the board.
They sold our playes to gain profit.
That Arsenal board are all BOUNCH OF FOOLS.
RVP leaves for £22.5m and Cazorla, Giroud and Podolski come in for around £35m (depending upon which source you believe for transfer fee).
Good business by Arsenal as they were becoming increasingly over reliant upon RVP.
Shame the sample size is one season.
A look at RvP’s stats for previous seasons would show that Arsene has pulled off a massive coup for an injury prone 29 year old in the last year of his contract. Excluding last year, I think he averages 9.4 goals per season.
Also need to factor in RvP’s value at the end of his contract. At his age, I’d guess it would be close to zero.
So, all in all, another £24 million added to Utd’s debt and add to that £20 million in wages over the next four years.
What a stunning buy. Still, he had a good season last year, so I’m sure it’ll all work out.