I intended to open this post talking briefly about the penalty, but once I dived into the subject I found it deserved its own post. This post got left on the back burner. I apologise, but I realise that you don’t really care about the statistics from this game; if ever there was a game where only one stat counted it was this one, right? Yup, we won, that’s all that matters.

So, let’s be brief then.  I’ve seen a Villan or two crediting the Blues with “16 shots on target”, which is way off I’m afraid.  There’s a difference between shots on goal and shots on target, I suspect they meant the former, since that’s accurate.  However, City only managed 5 on target.  We had 6, although 1 of them was the penalty.  Hey, there’s a long list of England players from World Cups past who could talk about the value of at least getting their penalties on target!

The most significant thing that the average position map reveals is how Petrov was held so deep.  Birmingham pretty much played my favourite system of the moment; 4-2-3-1, with Bowyer and Ferguson in the dual holding roles.  That allowed McFadden, Larsson and Gardner to explore the space behind Milner and left Petrov a lot of work to break up play.

It was a local derby game, central midfield battles are frequently key.  That said, as memory serves, we matched their 4-5-1 at St Andrews last September  and it wasn’t until after Carew came on for Reo-Coker late in the second half and we switched to a 4-4-2 that Gabby found the breakthrough.  That’s great example of switching things up to change games – cancel each other out with similar systems for an hour or so and then change it up when the legs are getting tired and the minds frustrated.

Full Back vs Full Back

You’d think I’d learn. Last time out, it appeared that I was unfair on Stephen Warnock after a few stray passes early on coloured my judgement of his performance for the game as a whole. His stats later revealed that he was the top passer on the team. Ooops.

This time it’s Cuellar who may have left a few dodgy passes embossed in my memory which only served to give me a less than accurate impression.

Just for fun, I thought I’d put the two full backs alongside each other in a graphic stats fest and let you make you own minds up whether Carlos and, more accurately, the manager deserve the criticism frequently levied upon them for playing at right back. That’s Carlos at right back, not the manager. Obviously.

For this exercise, to focus on the most important aspects of their game, I’ve removed throw-ins which are otherwise normally included in passing statistics.

Successful Passes: Warnock 27 – Cuellar 24

Unsuccessful Passes: Warnock 5 – Cuellar 3

Unsuccessful Crosses: Warnock 1 – Cuellar 1

Neither player made a successful cross.

Successful Free Kicks: Warnock 2 – Cuellar 1

Warnock also had one unsuccessful free kick and Cuellar had none.

Interceptions: Warnock 1 – Cuellar 2

Tackles: Warnock 5 (Lost 2) – Cuellar 7 (Lost 1)

Clearances: Warnock 2 (Failed 1) – Cuellar 5 (Failed 2)

Blocks: Warnock 0 – Cuellar 2

Free Kicks Conceded: Warnock 0 – Cuellar 3

So, there you go. This was a game that I thought Cuellar was fairly poor, but as far as the key stats go, he was extremely comparable with Warnock. Better in some areas, not quite as good in others. We knew that though.

Perhaps it would be fairer to look at Carlos’ performance alongside a recent game with Luke Young playing right back. The problem with that is the last league game he played was at Stamford Bridge and it wouldn’t be particularly fair of me to highlight that horror show!!

My personal opinion, stats aside, is that Carlos does a fine job at right back. No, he’s not a natural and he doesn’t quite deliver the surging overlapping runs in the final third, but he makes up for that defensively. As ever though, the bottom line for me is that Martin O’Neill has delivered what will be at least the 2nd best performance in the Premier League history for Aston Villa – why exactly would I want to question his team selection? It would appear that he’s got a good handle on what he’s doing.

1	Aston Villa	Apr 25th 2010	Birmingham City	0
	51%	Possession %	49%
	12	Shots	16
	6	On Target	5
	7	Corners	5
	0	Offsides	1
83′ Milner (Pen)		Scorers
Cuellar		Booked	Vignal, Johnson, Carr, Ferguson
		Sent Off
	206	Good Passes	175
	54%	CPS %	46%
	58	Bad Passes	56
	78%	Completion %	76%
	10	Interceptions	23
	40	Tackles Won	38
	20	Tackles Lost	31
	9	Blocks	2
	18	Free Kicks	14
Starting XI: 1. Friedel 24. Cuellar 25. Warnock 29. Collins 5. Dunne 19. Petrov 8. Milner 7. Young 6. Downing 11. Agbonlahor 10. Carew Subs: 22. Guzan 14. Delfouneso 4. Sidwell 20. Reo-Coker 2. Young 23. Beye 18. Heskey
Average Position Map

You can find Statshacks from other games here.

[Original data and graphics courtesy of ESPN and The Guardian]

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