As was stated in the opening paragraph, neither player is known as a prolific goal scorer. In fact, between the two of them, they had just one goal the entire season, so their worth is based on creating chances and controlling the play, and the chart below leaves little room for argument: Wilshere is superior to Ramsey when it comes to creating chances.
Even when you take away the chances created from set pieces (Wilshere created 7 chances to Ramsey’s 0), Wilshere still has a higher rate of minutes per chance created. And when you include the chances from set pieces, Ramsey and Wilshere aren’t even close. Wilshere creates a chance every 36 minutes compared to Ramsey’s one every 46 minutes. That doesn’t necessarily mean Wilshere is creating a goal every 36 minutes, but he’s at least setting someone up for a possibility.
And don’t be deceived by the bottom stat: minutes per clear-cut chances created. The simple fact that the two men totaled just 9 clear cut changes in over 3500 combined minutes of play means that a difference of 3 is hardly statistically significant. A lucky break here or an unlucky break there for one or the other is just as likely of an explanation for the difference as one actually being better at creating clear-cut chances for his teammates.
Another stat that has little significance is crossing accuracy. Wilshere has a higher completion percentage on his crosses than Ramsey, but not one that’s statistically significant.
So with all these things in mind, in the area of creativity, even though he has a lower pass completion percentage, Wilshere gets the nod in this category because of his ability to create more chances than Ramsey.
Let’s review the conclusions.
Defensively, Wilshere’s ability to win 50-50 balls and avoid making defensive errors rank him slightly above Ramsey, who although he is a better tackler and has more interceptions than Wilshere, his defensive errors could put the team in more potential danger than Wilshere’s flaws.
+1 for Wilshere.
When it comes to possession, both players share almost identical numbers, so that’s a wash. No points for either.
In the area of passing, Ramsey seems to be more accurate, but Wilshere is more creative and useful. Ramsey deserves credit for having more accuracy than Wilshere, but in the end, Wilshere is the one who creates the chances, so he ultimately gets the nod in this area. Perhaps a +1 for Ramsey and a +1.5 for Wilshere is the fair thing to do.
It’s entirely possible, however, that if Ramsey were to take a few less risks on defence and a few more risks on the offensive side, he could be even better than Wilshere. After all, Ramsey has proven to be a more accurate passer than Wilshere, but Wilshere seems to have the mental edge on Ramsey because of his willingness to be aggressive on attack while being better disciplined than Ramsey on defence.
Perhaps eventually one of these two will emerge as a clear-cut superstar, but for now, it’s probably too soon to tag either of them as “great” players. There is no doubt, however, that they’re both solid players who Arsenal fans have justifiably high hopes for.
Most would argue that having a solid midfield is the most important thing to build a team around, and these two players give Arsenal a chance to do that. And with young players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Keiran Gibbs, and Carl Jenkison to complement these two, it will be interesting to see what Arsenal can achieve in the future if they are able to keep all of these players.
[box_light]
Wilshere Vs Ramsey Quick Navigation
Wilshere Vs Ramsey Defending | Wilshere Vs Ramsey Possession | Wilshere Vs Ramsey Creativity
[/box_light]
[box_light]All of the stats from this article have been taken from the Opta Stats Centre at EPLIndex.com – Subscribe Now (Includes author privileges!) Check out our new Top Stats feature on the Stats Centre which allows you to compare all players in the league & read about new additions to the stats centre.[/box_light]
