STATS: Scholes' Season In Full In Comparison To Others

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