NipHolmes said:
This has got me thinking, I will look into what goals he scored in games and have a bit of a review about the lad. I rewatched Bosnia v Brazil the otherday and he mugged Brazil with hold up play. They didn't know what hit them.
I will start you off with some statistics. In what follows:
(a) = minutes per goal
(b) = minutes per assist
(c) = minutes per assist or goal
R = right foot L = left foot H = header
Tap-in is as defined by <a class="postlink" href="http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk</a>
2011-12, Premier League
Edin (a) 108 (b) 302 (c) 79 R: 5 L: 4 H: 4 pen: 0 Tap-in: 1
Kun (a) 112 (b) 258 (c) 78 R: 17 L: 2 H: 0 pen: 3 Tap-in: 1
Mario (a) 102 (b) 1329 (c) 95 R: 8 L:1 H: 0 pen: 3 Tap-in: 1
Carlos (a) 150 (b) 200 (c) 85 R: 2 L: 0 H: 1 pen: 0 Tap-in: 0
Career statistics:
Edin (a) 151 (b) 363 (c) 106
Kun (a) 156 (b) 378 (c) 110
Mario (a) 168 (b) 1056 (c) 124
Carlos (a) 186 (b) 376 (c) 125
van Persie (a) 241 (b) 490 (c) 162
Rooney (a) 174 (b) 395 (c) 174
Torres (a) 177 (b) 587 (c) 136
To sum up the careers, for anyone who really cannot abide numbers,
Edin dominates all the above in terms both of goals and of assists (and obviously therefore in terms of goals + assists). If penalties were excluded, the results would favour Edin even more.
Above you were discussing Edin at Wolfsburg. From July 2007 to December 2010, in the Bundesliga, he scored 66 goals and had 28 assists (with 95 minutes per goal or assist). In contrast to the suggestion above that Edin scored lots of tap-ins at Wolfsburg, he is credited with 0 (zero) tap-ins by transfermarkt.co.uk. Edin and Grafite (who is now with Al-Ahli Dubai) formed a partnership in the true sense of the term. As far as I know, they always spoke with genuine warmth about each other and it is, in my view, not appropriate to claim that one was much better than the other (which you don't). What struck me as interesting was that, for the 2010-11 season, Grafite had 7 goals and 2 assists in 860 minutes before Edin left and 2 goals and 1 assist in 988 minutes after he left.
Some time ago, I analysed 54 goals that Edin Dzeko scored for Wolfsburg during calendar years 2009 and 2010. He scored 17 (31%) with his Head; 14 with his Left foot; and 23 with his Right foot. Of the 37 goals scored with his feet, 22 (59%) were scored with his
first touch (so that, including headed goals, 39 out of 54 were scored with his
first touch!). A further 6 were scored with his 2nd touch (i.e., first touch to control). Remarkably few could be described as 'scrappy' goals or involved deflections. As noted above, transfermarkt.co.uk had 0 of his Wolfsburg goals as tap-ins.
** To argue that it would be foolish to change our system to focus it all on Edin is to set up and put down a straw man: no-one is seriously arguing that. Many have made the convincing (self-evident) argument that it is good to have a "plan b". And as the above stats for 2011-12 show, Edin has done remarkably well operating in our "plan a". Any sensible "plan a" should be able to accommodate a striker who can score with both feet and with his head.
** Lest anyone think I am obsessed with statistics, Edin's one-touch-and-pass to Carlos for the latter's goal vs Notts County in the 5th round of the FACup, his fourth goal vs Spurs, his role in the goal against Arsenal... these were
things of beauty!
** Lest anyone think that I am obsessed with Edin, my favourite striker is, in fact, Kun. I believe that Edin and Kun (both remarkably ego-light for strikers) could one of the best striking partnerships ever ..... if Roberto was committed to it.
