“Put me in, Coach” - Grant Holt compared to England strikers via stats

[Loopzilla 1]

Apologies if this has already been posted, but there is some interesting stats here:

www.eplindex.com/21494/put-me-in-coach-grant-holt-statistically-compared-england-strikers.html

[Gnasher 0]

Cheers, a good read. Again you have to wonder what more Holt could''ve done to get a go in those friendlies. There was a similar piece by opta stats in april I think which looked at the line-ups by stats and had holt as at least a bench player and highlighted how poor carroll was. I was so gutted Roy didn''t have the guts to do it and would''ve loved him to prove his haters wrong but thats life.

[BroadstairsR 2,186]

Holt is 100% right in what he said and the stats confirm it as far as he is concerned, that is.

 

The fact that he was not even considered for the pre-tournament friendlies meant that he never even had a chance to prove himself. Not a chance even to fail. Travesty.

 

We will never know. What we do know is that Hodgson''s England were a failure.

[ZLF 274]

They do back up what we know, Holts chance conversion and goals scored means he should have a chance,  so there has to be more to it than that and I can only think of three reasons.

 

Firstly I think it comes down to what a non contact sport the international game is,  crouch suffered from giving away free kicks as he was deemed to physical,   if he gets that you can only imagine how persecuted grant would be!   At the top level you cant afford to do that.

 

Secondly its in the possession stats,  holt and crouch are poor at passing,  giving the ball away far more frequently than their rivals with holt losing possesion more frequently than anyone else - 50% pass completion in the last third does not feel great.

 

Finally and most obviously he simply does not play for liverpool (or the big 4 clubs)

 

 

The stats were interesting,   and the one that stood out was the clear cut chance finishing - while his overall chance conversion was excellent,  it seems he (comparatively) fluffs his lines when he has a clear site of goal - ending up in the bottom set.    Give him more half chances I say!

 

And I hate to say it but bents stats looked ok, good finisher and retains possesion.