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.