Paul Scholes was brought out of retirement after Manchester United struggled with injuries in midfield, with Tom Cleverley, Anderson and Darren Fletcher all ruled out for a period of several months.
It was a return not even Paddy Power would give you odds on, especially when United’s main problem seemed to be a lack of speed and dynamism.
Having not played any competitive football for seven months, aged 37-years-old, how did Scholesy get on?
vs Sunderland – 90 minutes
98/103 (95.1%)
vs Swansea – 68 minutes
48/50 (96%)
vs City – 78 minutes
47/48 (97.9%)
vs Everton – 86 minutes
51/56 (91.1%)
vs Villa – 78 minutes
63/67 (94%)
vs QPR – 74 minutes
114/120 (95%)
vs Blackburn – 80 minutes
74/76 (97.4%)
vs Fulham – 11 minutes
13/14 (92.9%)
vs Wolves – 90 minutes
96/98 (98%)
vs West Brom – 73 minutes
75/86 (87.2%)
vs Spurs – 61 minutes
34/37 (91.9%)
vs Norwich – 90 minutes
73/80 (91.3%)
vs Liverpool – 90 minutes
87/95 (91.6%)
vs Chelsea – 26 minutes
24/27 (88.9%)
vs Stoke – 90 minutes
113/126 (89.7%)
vs Arsenal – 15 minutes
10/12 (83.3%)
vs Bolton – 69 minutes
38/42 (90.5%)
How does this compare with other midfielders?
– Scholes’ pass completion over the course of the season was 93.1%. To put this in to perspective: Yaya Toure – 90.5%. Michael Carrick -90.1%. Scott Parker – 89.5%. Luka Modric – 87.4%. David Silva – 87.1%. Juan Mata – 87%. Frank Lampard – 86.9%. Gareth Barry – 86.4%. Ramires – 85.1%. Raul Meireles – 84.5%. Jordan Henderson 83.9%. Steven Gerrard – 83.1%. Marouane Fellaini – 79.7%.
– Scholes’ pass completion in the final third over the course of the season was 83%. To put this in to perspective: Carrick -81%, Toure – 80%, Parker – 79%, Barry 77%, Lampard and Gerrard – 75% and Henderson – 74%.
– Scholes’ number of touches per minute over the course of the season was 1.08. To put this in to perspective: Yaya Toure – 1.05, Carrick – 1.01, Gerrard – 0.97 touches, Barry – 0.95 touches, Parker – 0.88 touches, Lampard – 0.85 touches and Hnederson – 0.77 touches.
– Scholes’ key passes per game (as adjudged by the number of starts) was 1.29. To put this in to perspective: Gerrard – 2.25 key passes, Lampard – 1.92 key passes, Toure – 1.55, Carrick – 1.04, Henderson – 1 key passes, Barry – 0.98 key passes, Parker – 0.75 key passes.
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Carrick’s Season In Full In Comparison To Others
Stats comparison table provided by Opta and Duncan Alexander