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Jean Makoun picked up the Man of the Match award against Fulham and has rightly won the plaudits from most quarters. But not everyone is impressed.
It’s true that his tackling isn’t the greatest just yet, but his passing is exemplary; he was the leading passer on the pitch against bother Man Utd and Fulham.
But the devil is always in the detail, passing numbers alone can distort the true picture. For instance, lots and lots of backwards and sideways passes can’t be held as valuable as “key” passes made forwards, can they?
I decided to analyse the direction of Makoun’s passing against Fulham in comparison with the other three central midfielders that day; Stiliyan Petrov, Danny Murphy and Steve Sidwell.
I’ve used the Opta provided passing data from The Guardian’s Chalkboards and replotted every open play pass & cross onto a new “Passing Wheel” graphic; all passes originating from the same central point.
You can click on the graphics below to enlargen and then use the right and left arrows in the modal window to navigate through each player.
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What should be quite clear is that Makoun certainly did not rack up high passing numbers simply by making lots of short sideways and backwards passes, there is an impressive range of passes in his wheel.
It should be noted that Makoun had the longest completed forward pass; a superbly played ball into space on the right for Stewart Downing. Exactly the type of ball I talked about him playing when I described his ability to play a quarterback style role, distributing the ball to the corners from a deep position.
Sector analysis
The Passing Wheel graphics are split into eight sectors, but I’ve taken the completed passes and analysed where they fell based on four key sectors since each individual sector has a mirror image, as shown in the table below.
As you can see for youself, Makoun delivered more passes into sector 1 than any other player and far more passes into sectors 1 and 2 combined than the other three. (Makoun 42, Petrov 24, Murphy 35, Sidwell 20).
He made a few more backward passes (19) than Murphy (15) and Sidwell (17), but far less than Petrov (25). Quite how anyone could think that Petrov had a better game than Makoun is quite beyond me, but there are a few out there apparently.
Settling In
Makoun’s played in three games, although he didn’t manage the full 90 on his debut after picking up a knock fairly early on. For me, he was the best player on the pitch in the last two games and he’s settled in remarkably well.
There are signs that the players around him aren’t always on the same page, they’re not used to playing with someone who is able to play so many first time passes. But think about how this side will play when they are all on the same wavelength, Makoun in the centre pulling the creative strings.
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16 Comments to “Passing Wheel Analysis: Makoun & Petrov vs Murphy & Sidwell”
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He does seem a bit lightweight, but he can certainly pass the ball.
I like the look of him.
Nice to see you got the Newsnow listing Dan
i’m pleased to say that someone from newsnow went to the trouble of ringing me on friday; turns out there was an email problem at my end, but it’s all resolved now and i’m happy to finally be listed.
I have to say I have been very impressed with Makoun but I think he had an off game against Fulham. Good passing requires the recipient to also be on the same wavelenght, but against Fulham he passed a couple right to a white shirt. He also got caught in possession several times.
Personally, I think it was just one of those games for him and his ability will reassert itself. I am also not one to say Petrov was better (he wasn’t) but Makoun can play better than he did on Saturday.
Badger – I made the same comment about him looking lightweight as well. He is going to need to be paired with someone who really likes to tackle. Personally I like the thought of Bradley but Delph might be good as well. Alternatively, I think Bannan and Makoun would be a disaster.
i was surprised to find that makoun didn’t register a single tackle against fulham, although the definition of tackle isn’t necessarily what you might assume.
nevertheless, i agree entirely that makoun and bannan would be a lightweight pairing opponents would gladly drive a bus through.
clearly petrov’s days are numbered, it’s got to be bradley/delph/makoun rotation in the future.
I agree with you Idaho/Dan.
I was actually thinking to myself “where does Makoun playing leave Bannan?”
Sadly, I expect it will be on the bench or even worse moved on, because they seem too similar in their attributes/deficiencies to me.
At least it’s a nice problem for GH to have though.
i like bannan playing where ash is tbh, so he may well get more chances next season. this is his breakthrough season though, as last season was albrighton’s, we shouldn’t expect (or demand) that he sees too much time.
last i checked, and it may have been a couple of games ago now, bannan was included in 27 of 30 18-man match squads. not too shabby for a first season proper with the seniors.
What your analysis has not picked up on was that, firstly, Makoun’s passes were pretty much all first time and, secondly, he passes the ball into space where the player is moving with real vision. I felt at times that he almost had to play the ball first time and might have been better just keeping it at his feet and moving forward.
Petrov was crap on Saturday and was at fault during the build up of both goals. NRC would be better than Stan by a long way.
Next game should be:
———– NRC ————–
————— Makoun ——-
—– Bradley —————-
Ash —————— Downing
———– Bent ————-
yes, that’s fair, hard to quantify statistically, it’s more anecdotal, but that’s spot on.
he has a speed of thought and action that sets him apart from many players, certainly stan, which is what i was alluding to in the closing paragraphs about getting on the same page.
i’d also prefer to see NRC in there and your line up certainly provides a bit of steel and creativity in the middle, but at the cost of albrighton and gabby which won’t impress the masses.
you can’t please all the people all the time of course.
Great to see some in depth objective analysis that allows the reader to draw some sensible conclusions.More please!
I cannot see how Tony can use your analysis to conclude that Petrov was ‘crap’.Seems like there is a bandwagon of adverse sentiment against a player who has given everything to the club through thick and thin.He deserves more respect!
On the other hand I do like the balance of Tony’s midfield/forward combination and i would rotate the role between NRC and Petrov depending on the opposition and whether we were playing at home or away.
petrov handled himself with some dignity when he received some unjust rough treatment from the home support a couple of seasons back, i have a lot of respect for him for that.
i try to remember that when i write about him, he’s always done his best, no question.
nevertheless, personally speaking, i do feel he’s our weakest link and it’s an awkward situation with him being captain; it makes it difficult to make him a rotation player.
looking a bit further down the road, it might be worth a glance at the brief review of the central midfield players i put together recently in this post:-
http://astonvillacentral.com/2011/01/michael-bradley-to-aston-villa-on-loan/
the key points being NRC out of contract in the summer and petrov still having 2 years on his deal – surely a time to sell him on if at all possible.
I think NRC had a bad deal under O’Neil and would like to keep him as well as Petrov.
i agree Petrov should not be captain as he cannot have a guaranteed place in the team.Part of the problem is that he gets exposed in a four man midfield when we play with two wide players.He has too much ground to cover and has never been the most athletic player.He was at his best when we played five in midfield.
I would not try to sell him because we would not get much for him because of his age and it only takes a couple of injuries and we will be spread thin again. The only caviat being that Petrov himself must accept a new role at the club ie rotational player and a fine example on the training ground for the younger players in terms of technique,awareness of space and ball retention.
Petrov is our defensive midfielder. He’s not in the team to make killer passes, he’s there to win possession and keep possession. He’s not getting any younger but he was one of the better players at the weekend, there were plenty worse.
The key to all this is what he DOES.
We have watched for years and grown increasingly frustrated that we cannot pass from the midfield. We can hoof from the back. We can feed it up the wings, but through the middle we are usually facing the wrong way to do anything of use.
Makoun feeds the ball through the middle.
He wants the ball.
He acts decisively.
He has vision.
He believes in his own ability
He is without a doubt my favourite current Villa player (already). He WILL be a Villa legend.
I dont give a shit if he never makes a tackle this season. Bollocks to it, pair him with Coker, he never makes a pass but will rush about tackling until his legs fall off.
Don’t look at what he doesn’t do. He IS the answer to a MASSIVE Villa weakness.
And bugger me, is he exciting to watch. Can’t wait for his next outing. Excited. Proper excited.
nice to see you have your mojo back, nan.
Spot on Nan.
I’d argue with the lack of tackling, though. I think we are all looking for a NRC or Delph crunching tackle. Makoun does well to get in front of players and nick it off them if they don’t have complete control. Maybe not the prototypical defensive mid but I disagree that he doesn’t “tackle”.
Glad to see the excitement has infected you as well. I am finding myself checking to see who above us might lose rather than hoping that those below us drop points!
I was impressed with Makoun’s passing in the first half, second half he was only marginally better than Petrov. The biggest probelm was they don’t compliment each other. Both wanted to make a pass and then hang back playing the holding midfielder / playmaker role. It meant we had no forward movement in the middle of the park.