DOWNING baiters, listen up. The left footed line hugger is Boro’s most potent creative force - and that’s official!
According to the Premiership’s statistical service the livewire winger has put in more successful crosses than any other player in the Premiership and has been Boro’s best passer, dribbler and the team’s assist king to boot. And Alpine hardman and cult hero Emanuel Pogatetz is fast shaping up as one of the best defenders around too.
Stewart Downing has his critics, and some of them pretty vocal at that. A Big Time Charlie who has never reached his potential, they say. He never puts a foot in. He flatters to deceive. Get him sold to Spurs and get unproven Adam Johnson in they say, slipping into Chickenrun mode without really thinking it through.
But the number-crunchers’ end-of-term report gives a far more generous and objective assessment of a Pallister Park prodigy who is the most exciting left footed Teesside talent to emerge in decades.
The statistical snapshot shows that without doubt Downing is Boro’s most consistent attacking outlet. He has clocked up the most successful passes (440), most crosses (193), most dribbles (39) and most assists (seven) in a season which, mathematically at least, has been a personal success.
Those figures have made him the 13th highest ranked midfielder in the Premiership, no mean feat given the cash spent on world class stars by the league’s big boys.
His high point this term came as he engineered a sparkling 5-1 win against Bolton but it has been the week in, week out understated excellence that has rattled up the points on the official clapometer.
Actim Index, the Premiership’s official statistical service, like Sky’s Opta system, uses a mathematical matrix to map every minute of action in every top flight game.
Former pro’s follow each match from the press box noting in a metronomic style every single action: “Middlesbrough No 8, 20 yard pass from own half, Middlesbrough No 19, 20 yards dribble and cross from left, Middlesbrough No 18, shot off target...”
The match videos are also analysed by computer and the two combined to shape a complex mathematical formula that rates each player's individual contribution in terms of goals, shots, passes, dribbles, tackles, crosses, saves, clearances, blocks, interceptions and red and yellow cards.
Of course, such systems are far from perfect. There is no mechanism, for instance, for differentiating between a cautious George Boateng five yard square pass that plays a colleague into trouble and a sublime 60 yard cross field ball onto Mark Viduka’s toe and sets up a goal or between a routine tackle on the halfway line and a last gasp sliding challenge in the box.
But as a general overview it offers an interesting perspective and adds some objective meat to the on-going debate.
Downing comes out on top of all the creative categories for Boro but the highest rated player in the overall Index is the season’s surprise package Pogatetz, a player transformed from shaky and rash tackling left back to rock solid central defender by the classy presence of Jonathan Woodgate.
Mad Dog finished 37th in the overall rankings and was rated as the ninth best defender in the league thanks to a robust approach that saw him make 76 tackles, 69 clearances, 21 interceptions and 30 blocks - including two from point blank piledrivers at Wigan that would have crushed the ribcage of a mere mortal.
The battle scarred Austrian also scored twice to bump up his stats. It may be a flaw in the matrix that puts him ahead of Woodgate, although the £7m new boy has shown positional sense so acute that he rarely has to tackle. Boro’s top tackler was Boateng with 72, although it has been cruelly suggested most of those were his second touch.
The Index rated Didier Drogba as the player of the player with a score of 628 with Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and Rooney just behind and with Mikel Arteta, Gareth Barry, Benni McCarthy and Gabriel Agbonlahor in the top ten.
As well as Pogo (37) and Downing (45) Boro had Mark Schwarzer (53rd), Mark Viduka (59th) and Andrew Taylor (78th) in the top 100.
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