Chelsea have four of the top five ranked players in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, with Juan Mata now sitting in top spot ahead of Fernando Torres in 2nd, Eden Hazard in 3rd, and Branislav Ivanovic in 5th.
Mata now has three goals and five assists to his name and has completed 271 passes in his opponents half. That’s the fifth highest number of passes overall in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index. Mata covered 6.95 miles against Spurs last weekend, the most by a Chelsea player in a single game so far this season, while Ramires 6.69 miles in the same game was the second highest, and the 64.62 miles as a squad the most by Chelsea as a team so far this season.
Cahill will increasingly be in the spotlight as John Terry serves his four match ban. Cahill already has two goals to his name this season, and has made an impressive six blocks. With Cahill’s defensive team mates Branislav Ivanovic scoring three and Ashley Cole also on the score sheet in the Premier League so far this season that means six of Chelsea’s eighteen goals have come courtesy of their defenders this season.
Brazilian wonder kid Oscar has netted twice in the Champions League this season but is still to find the net in the Premier League competition. Oscar has had 13 attempts at goal without scoring, including nine on target. No other player in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index has had so many shots on target without a goal.
Robin Van Persie remains joint top goalscorer in the Premier League with an impressive six goals from eight games. Van Persie’s goals have come from 17 shots at goal. His rivals for the golden boot, Michu and Demba Ba, are both also on six goals this season, but have required 20 and 30 efforts at goal respectively to reach that total. Van Persie has a shots on target percentage of just 47% percent, but still has one of the best minutes per goal ratios in the league with one every 106 minutes and 40 seconds so far this season. Frighteningly, that means if the Dutch striker can get more of his efforts on target then his goal scoring rate can improve even further.
Paul Scholes picked up his fourth yellow card in just 440 minutes of play this season against Stoke, though the midfielder may consider his reputation has gone before him as he had committed just nine fouls for those cards compared to Aston Villa’s Karim El Ahmadi who has committed 17 fouls and received four yellow cards.
Wayne Rooney looked determined for United, and his 6.75 miles against Stoke was the joint highest distance covered by a United player in a single game this season. Meanwhile Michael Carrick’s 6.63 miles was enough to put him fourth overall in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for distance covered with 49.56 miles.
Man Utd News 24/7
Interesting to know of how much ground Carrick covers…highly underrated. Come on United! Lets do the renties.
Great read
Yeah really interesting to note carrick covered that much ground in that match, he’s really underrated simply because a lot of effort he put in does so off the ball, and it goes unnoticed
Fuck me im nervous, have to work so im going to miss the first half but im hoping to come home to find us three nil up! Unlikely as that seems…. come on united. Be professional, be hard, their midfield isnt exactly full of yaya toures. Carrick is the ‘big unit’ in midfield today.
Ando confident injury woes are behind him http://t.co/qlPCJkoA
Hopefully he starts, he’s one player who can boss that CM
Really looking forward to it, its really going to be one cracker of a match a end to end encounter filled with loads of goals
Fucking buzzing here!
Chelsea formation vs us
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Statistics can be so misleading – Trust your eyes not the statistics – Carrick may well “cover a lot of ground” but he very, very rarely wins back a ball and releases a forward pass to the point men. Covering a lot of ground proves absolutely nothing and neither does “passes completed” or “shots on goal” – I make my mind up on what I see when I watch a game and more importantly what I FEEL for a player – Does Michael Carrick thrill me or excite me or fill me with confidence that he can grab a BIG game like today by the scruff of the neck ? Sadly not – whatever the statistics tell me I should be thinking.
wow it’s getting closer.
I hope that today we win this game and I have the full trust in us. No matter how we win it, if we win it in style, so be it, if ugly so be it.
The key is to WIN chelski
Carrick rarely wins back a ball and hardly passes forward? Gotta be kidding me. I personally can’t imagine not having him in front of that leaky defence this season!
YorYor – No mate – not kidding – I watch the games and I see him passing side to side and backwards, all very cautious, all very safe. He SELDOM makes a tackle and wins the ball and releases an attacking ball forward that begins a counter – Or perhaps you can actually tell me when that DOES happen ?
He had a storming game earlier in the season. Sure he passes sideways a fair bit, but that’s his role, to keep possession and spread play to our wingers. He rarely makes tackles because his interception rate is one of the highest in the squad I believe.
Thankfully SAF probably has him as one of the permanent names on his preferred starting line-up.
Carrick sometimes plays safe, because he has t o play safe, that’s his role.
But if you have seen United’s games, like I bet you have, you should have noticed that he plays alot of the balls forward, it depends of the situation he is on. The hard part for Carrick is that he doesn’t have Xavi and Iniesta in front of him. So sometiems when he is against 2 players defending, he can look awkward.
But in all fairness you can’t say he doesn’t play the ball forward. Carrick won my belief in him last year and now I will not give stick, cause I have seen that he is an important player for us.
As for playign safe. When a player plays safe you say it’s too safe, when a player plays risky, you say he is inconsistent. And this last comment isn’t toward anyone, just saying.
Carrick = too safe
Nani = Inconsistent and risky
You have to see their roles mates.
Anyway, let’s focus in todays game, where chelski will have a wake-up call and notice that We are ManUtd and we’ll do what we want.
I’m with shinji in regard to statistics shouldn’t be looked into to deeply. Heis right about Carrick not been able to stamp his authority on big games, he never has and sadly I don’t think he ever will. Examples of Carrick putting in a man of the match performance and dominate a game for us can probably he counted on one hand and he’s played + 300 games for us.
People say we are leaking goals this season, he’s been the main stay in the team through out this period of people running through our midfiields non existence.
He won’t get dropped Fergie says he our main player, I feel he is the weak link.
stats are misleading alot of the time but to be honest i couldnt give a shit about them as long as we win this game or at least not lose it……my opinion is carrick is overrated but he does have qualities and the fact is at the minute there is no1 else to put in there especially with kagawas injury….i would and hope fergie goes 4 5 1 andnot the shitty system we have been playing my fear is he will and not only that play players like welbz on the wing which always confuses me…..heres what i hope for
de gea
rafa ferdi evans buttner
tv7 carrick rooney ando nani
RVP
they have a powerful midfield, 1 of the best in europe by far and it needs to be contained…thank fuck theres no drogba otherwise we would be in trouble ie defence and de tea….but either way C,MON UTD
Lads have the potential to win this, but it’s not an easy task that’s for sure .
Not worried one bit, we will piss it.
Baffling views all around
Really, carrick overrated?? Cut him some slack mate, he does what he’s asked to do by the boss
And during his time as our main DM has been very reliable and the club continued its success, winning trophy after trophy with carrick as DM
Fuck me side ways shinji you’re talking a lot of bile as always
Carrick rarely wins back a ball and hardly
passes forward?
Stats are always misleading haha my ***
my opinion on carrick:
Not half as bad as 50% of people think he is
Not half as good as the other 50% of people think he is
I have a good feeling about today… cautious, but good. Remember its been ten years since we beat them there in the league. We’re asking our boys to break that long run today. I think they have the ability, they already closed one by walking away from anfield with three points, let’s do it again!
Just a reminder…. John Terry is a fracking cunt!!!
So. How many still think RVP was an overpriced purchase ?.
Cut Carrick some slack please. You dont have to slid and be aggressive to win back the ball. Carrick is at the right place at the right time and that’s whats required. So what if he passes sideways? I mean whats wrong, he helps in retaining ball and he does play killer defense splitting passes. Sadly with no one to cover the crooked defense he doesn’t have the opportunity to play up the pitch.
Carrick does not have the ability to play further up the field.
He has been playing really deep (basically 5 metres from the back four) for most of his united career. Playing this deep means he often has space and time on the ball as 9 times out of ten he picks the ball up deep in our own half from our backs. He struggles in this position when there is the slightest bit of pressure from the opposing team. More often than not, when he is closed down or there is another player within a couple of metres of him he panics and either: 1. hits a back pass (back to he defender he just got the ball from more often than not) 2. tries to pass forward but passes straight to an opposing player or 3. gets easily dispossessed as he has absolutely no skill or intelligence to use his physique to shield the ball and turn or beat a man.
If carrick plays further up the field there is naturally going to be less time and space on the ball. Carrick would be criticized even further if he played higher up the pitch because one has to be more agile and work harder and more intelligently to find and use space. Bottom line is carrick is an average to below average player that would be criticized even further were it not for the fact that he is english. The fact that he is one of our ‘key’ players according to fergie just highilghts why this so called “greatest manager of all time” has only 2 champions leagues in 25 years managing the wealthiest and best club in the world.