Statistical Analysis: Is Arsenal target Victor Wanyama ready for the big stage?

March 26, 2013

By David Onjili

Signed from Belgium outfit Beerschoft by Neil Lennon’s Celtic, Victor Wanyama Mugube has gone on to develop into an integral part of Celtic FC as they look to march onto another Scottish title. He has established himself as one of the only East African footballers to play in a top European league, a feat his elder brother Robert Mariga achieved with Inter Milan when he became the 1st East African to win the champions league with Jose Mourinho’s side.
I am talking about a young man who debuted for the Kenyan national team Harambee Stars at the age of 15 in a friendly against Nigeria, and later signed for Celtic at the tender age of 19 years old and chose to wear the number 67 jersey which he said was inspired after reading the club’s history. After scoring against Barcelona, Wanyama made history by becoming the first Kenyan to score a goal in the UEFA Champions League.
Let us first take a peek at the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 seasons and compare his progress.
2012-2013 season

Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC
UCL	7	0	1	0	8	3	15	10	3
LC	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SPL	26	1	6	3	47	14	40	34	6
SFAC	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
TOTALS	38	2	7	3	55	17	55	44	10

2011-2012 season

Competition	GS	SB	G	A	SH	SG	FC	FS	YC
SFAC	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
SPL	24	5	4	4	16	6	40	36	2
LC	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
EUROPA	5	0	0	0	1	0	9	4	1
TOTALS	33	9	4	4	17	6	49	40	3

(GS-games played,SB-substitutions,G-goals,SH-shots,SG-shots on goal,FC-fouls committed,FS-fouls suffered,YC-yellow cards)
From the above tables we can note that Wanyama has been able to score more goals this season (7) as opposed to last season (4) although his accuracy at hitting the target has dropped from 35% to 31%, but he is a defensive midfielder who sits a little deeper in Neill Lennon’s side, Having received 1 red card last season in all competitions this year after 8 matches he has been able to avoid this. This shows some tactical discipline too.
As a defensive midfielder and having been played once as a centre back he has committed an increased number of fouls this season, but also worth noting he’s love for ball possession has made him vulnerable to being fouled many times, another positive is that he has a good number of assists for his team, from the 38 games played this season, he has 3 assists in all competitions.
Allow me to look at one of the most impressive performances and funnily it was in Europe and against arguably Europe’s best team, Barcelona. On that night he was charged with neutralizing Leo Messi. We all know how tough this is for any player; he however did try and was able to neutralize the Barca midfield together with his teammates. That not being enough he also rose to head in one of his teams goals from a corner as Celtic went ahead to beat the Catalans 3-1. The table below illustrates his performance in the Champions league.

appearance	goals	Aerials won	aggression	assists	ratings	Pass accuracy %	Shots per game
7	1	2.1	3.0	0	7.12	80.7	1.1

From the above data, his ratings were second to Charlie Mulgrew, interesting to note is his good passing accuracy and the number of aerial duels won. This last statistic accompanied with his burly stature would come in handy were he to make the switch to the premier league.
Conclusion
I must admit the fact that the Scottish Premier League may not rank the same as the Spanish, German, Italian or English leagues but it is worth noting that he is among the best Central midfielders and his good showing in the Champions League show he is a player who can make it in the big leagues.
That said there are aspects of his game that need to be sharpened, he needs to improve on his passing to follow in the steps of other deep sitting players like Arteta and Xabi Alonso. It is understandable with the role he plays at Celtic but I think he also commits many fouls as we have seen from the earlier tables comparing his two seasons in Scotland.
I am confident that wherever he plays next season he can only be better, if he moves on to a top league which I strongly recommend he should be patient enough to keep developing especially surrounded by top class talents and managers and this is not to take away anything from the Scottish league.

TO WHOM AND WHY I WILL VOTE

The honorable Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is a distinguished Kenyan, a family man and a successful businessman. He is the son of our late founding father and candidate for the 4^th president of Kenya under the Jubilee Coalition. He was introduced to politics as many have it by the 2^nd president of Kenya Daniel Arap Moi,he has proven his mettle as one fine politician and on his way to the presidency lies on man;Raila Amollo Odinga.Going by the latest opinion polls the two are the early front runners to succeed the incumbent president. On March 4^th 2013, every progressive and well meaning Kenyan will go and vote in one of the most complex elections under the new constitutional dispensation.

Every generation has an important duty with destiny, either to write it or go into oblivion; our children and their children will either enjoy or suffer from the political choices that we all make come March. I chose to write my own history not out of blind loyalty to tribe, party or religion but for the sake of my 43 or more children, I have a short story to illustrate this. A certain father had 43 children from 43 different wives, family tradition allowed him to reward them after every 5years with the opportunity to take care of his wealth. For 49years he had rotated the baton between his two wives’ sons, at first the other wives remained quiet but in recent years they had also developed a desire to see what their children were capable of doing with the opportunity. Today it lay solely in the hands of the man a golden opportunity to see and let the other wives’ children also have a chance. This is at a time when the other wives had started to whisper about favoritism from the man, he knew that this time round his choice was crucial as not only was it going bring peace but it would help one of his sons to remember that before the father’s eyes they were all equal and none was entitled to the reward.

This he had to do, not because the children from the 2 wives were bad, No, but so that these other children could also dream. Growing up children have wishes/dreams, and it is only fair if we show them that in a just and democratic Kenya, a boy in Madera and a girl in Marakwet have an equal chance just like a boy in Othaya or Baringo does, all they need is to work hard in a Kenya that does not discriminate against one because if we are equal before God, then we must as human beings also treat each other equally.

It is on this basis that from the two top presidential contenders I chose to settle on Raila Odinga, I pray that his ascending to the presidency will spur a belief that in the new Kenya, all is possible, my prayer is that we may stop the usual politics as a nation and look at the real issues that every Kenyan wants addressed, affordable housing and medical care, jobs and no Kenyan should ever die of hunger or miss a meal. My prayer is that on the 5^th of March the nation may wake up to a new dawn and that all the politicians may be leaders and fight for the very needs of the citizenry and my challenge is that all of us may get out and vote for it is our constitutional right to vote, let us exercise it and the politicians should after the elections work with the interest of the nation at heart.

Signed
N/B-This blog was posted late

WILL THE EGYPTIAN DUCK BE BROKEN BY KENYAN TEAMS?

Kenya’s representatives in continental soccer Tusker F.C and Gor Mahia F.C both started their campaigns on the wrong foot as both teams were humbled in their fixtures home and away respectively. First was Gor Mahia who travelled to Egypt to meet ENNPI of Egypt in the Confederations cup first round, their outing ended up uneventfully as they were walloped by their opponents 3 goals to nil. This match was played behind closed doors.

Their coach however sounded that the ‘Green Army’ as they are popularly known would turnaround that score line in their return fixture at the Nyayo National Stadium. This however seems a tall order as most Kenyan teams have fared poorly against their Egyptian opponents at the continental stage. He also lamented on poor finishing, which had cost them the vital away goal, since his marksmen were not able to convert the numerous chances they created in Egypt.

Gor coach, Zradvco Logarucic attributed the poor performance to poor preparations, claiming that his team were not sure of making the trip due to lack of funds, he reiterated that his team would be ready for the 2^nd round fixture in a fortnight. This was however not convincing bearing in mind that the same team was mauled by APR of Rwanda in 2009 when they represented the country at the continental arena.

Hope is not however lost for the Green army, being a community club with unrivalled following, they promise to give a fight of their life before their ever demanding fans in the return fixture. So as to break this Egyptian duck by Kenyan teams.

The 2012 KPL champions Tusker hosted African power house Al Ahly of Egypt at the Nyayo national stadium, in a match graced by the country’s Prime Minister and a sizeable crowd. The home team got off to a bright start which was however characterized by poor finishing and were made to pay earlier in the 2^nd half. Two goals by substitute, Ahmed Shokry gave the visitors a 2-0 lead before Jesse Were pulled 1 goal for the hosts.

This was a match of clear wasted chance by the home team and head coach Robert Matano later admitted it would be a tall order to score 2 clear goals to overturn the result in Egypt. However, their captain Shikokoti was optimistic, saying that they had 90 minutes to redeem themselves.

The nation will be keen on the return fixtures, especially bearing in mind how starved they are of continental fixtures, bearing in mind that the national team too..The Harambee Stars have continued to underperform due to poor preparations and too much politicking in the football administration.

Focus now shifts to the KPL,as the two teams prepare for the return fixture in a fortnights time.