July 11, 2014 Arsenal, Main, Player Analytics, Radar Love

Is Sami Khedira Arsenal’s Answer at Defensive Mid?

Khedira-2010_graf

 

Khedira-2011_Graf

 

Khedira-2012_Graff

Khedira-2013_graff

Khedira-2014_Graf

Hrm…

Okay, so what DOES a defensive midfielder look like?

Here’s one.

Arteta 2014

Here is another. This one is French and just entering his prime.

Morgan_Schneiderlin_2014

 

Finally another. This one is even on the German National Team, and he’s young too.

Cristoph Kramer 2014

 

 

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  • Toshack

    The Khedira vs. Brazil the other day is the Khedira I remember emerging as a star at the World Cup of 2010. He shouldn’t be wasted as a pure DM.

  • Paul

    I can believe how much people rely on stats nowadays. According to those “sacrosanct” stats, Benzema was the best player of the world cup (beating Robben, Muller or James)up until the semi-finals…

    • Jesoos

      Is that really your comment on a football website dedicated to statistical analysis? Regardless, he’s only using statistics to ask a question, not answer it.

  • Andre

    Just for the sake of comparison, what did Arteta’s stats look like at Everton?

  • Vincepince

    Wonder what Flamini looks like? Also seconding Andre’s query and I think an Arteta gifolution would be interesting!

  • Brendan

    This comparison doesn’t really reveal anything since Khedira has always played as a Box-to-Box midfielder with Alonso playing the distributing DM role. Arteta played a similar box-to-box role when he was signed, but Wenger enjoys converting somewhat attacking-minded players to pure defensive midfielders, and I don’t see why Khedira couldn’t do the same.

    Stats need context as you well know.

    • Mark

      I was thinking/wondering this. Your stats, I’d have thought, are unlikely to look like a DM if you don’t play there. There might be some underlying stats maybe that would indicate who would make a good DM but I’m not sure what they’d be

  • joshandali

    A box-to-box CM, maybe compare him to Yaya/Fernandinho at City?

  • Robert

    I thought I read somewhere that Schneiderlin rated as the Prem’s highest for tackles, or interceptions or something like that last year. Is this not true? Or within what population are your bands measured?

  • http://analysport.free.fr Thom

    What about the “dribbled past” data?
    Khedira is pretty good on that aspect unlike Arteta or Kramer and it seems to be an important data for a defending player. I think that DP is a misleading data because when looking graph we’re like : “Hooo Khedira never let his opponent go through the middle line” … but how Khedira does that without tackles or interceptions?

    I think that Khedira’s DP shows that he isn’t a defending player, he doesn’t loose any duel because he doesn’t take part in defending duels …

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