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England’s Best XI | Part 4: Uncapped Players | Opta Stats Analysis

With England’s best XI already chosen (https://www.eplindex.com/14112/england-xi-part-3-strikers-opta-stats-analysis.html) we will now look at whether any of the players that haven’t been mentioned by the media for an England call up would make the starting XI.

We have compared these players against the player that was chosen for the starting XI in the previous article.

We have again given the player that comes out on top in each statistic 5 points, the player that comes second 3 points and the player that comes third 1 point.

Right Back

As Glen Johnson was chosen for the right back slot we have compared him against Danny Simpson and Martin Kelly and found that Johnson comes out on top again.

Johnson has won 57% of his ground 50-50s this season, which is 3% better than both Simpson and Kelly. He has also won 62% of his aerial 50-50s this season which is 15% better than Kelly and 17% more than Simpson.

Glen Johnson also has the best pass completion percentage out of the three right backs as he has completed 82.10% of his passes this season, which is 7.46% better than his teammate Martin Kelly and 8.05% better than Danny Simpson.

Johnson has also not made one defensive error this season and creates a chance for his team every 88 minutes which is 69 minutes more often than Kelly and 129 minutes more often than Simpson. Johnson also completes 1.42 of his dribbles per game which is an impressive 1.12 more than Kelly and 1.24 more than Simpson.

Simpson has won 82.09% of his tackles this season which is 5.62% more than Johnson and 11.5% more than Kelly. He has also found a teammate with 26% of his crosses so far this season, which is 7% better than Johnson and a whopping 20% better than Kelly.

Simpson also impresses in how long it takes him to lose possession of the ball as he only gives the ball away every 122 minutes which is 44 minutes longer than Kelly and 75 minutes longer than Johnson.

Therefore, as Johnson comes out on top in this comparison he would still get the nod over both Simpson and Kelly for Euro 2012.

Centre Backs

As Lescott and Ferdinand scored the highest in the centre back comparison they were chosen for England’s best XI, so we have compared them to Williamson and Caulker to see if they would have made the starting XI.

As you can see from the table above Ferdinand and Lescott come out on top again with Ferdinand coming in the top two in every statistic and Lescott coming in the top two in every statistic apart from minutes per loss of possession.

Lescott has won 92.11% of his tackles this season which is 6.4% better than Ferdinand and a very impressive 14.84% better than Williamson and an incredible 26.48% better than Caulker. Lescott has also conceded the fewest amount of goals per game this season as Man City have only conceded 0.77 goals per game when he has played. This is 0.11 better than Ferdinand, 0.36 better than Caulker and 0.41 better than Williamson.

Lescott and Caulker have also not made any defensive errors this season, while Ferdinand makes a defensive error every 706 minutes while Williamson makes an error every 768 minutes. Lescott has also won 77% of his aerial 50-50s this season which is 7% better than Ferdinand, 17% better than Caulker and 26% better than Williamson.

Ferdinand has won the highest percentage of ground 50-50s this season out of all the centre backs in this comparison by winning 70% of them. This is 4% better than Lescott, 8% better than Caulker and 19% better than Williamson.

Ferdinand has also completed 89.81% of his passes this season, which is 1.89% better than Lescott, 2.27% better than Caulker and 14.93% better than Williamson. It also takes Ferdinand 423 minutes to lose possession of the ball, which is 39 minutes longer than Williamson, 216 minutes longer than Caulker and 268 minutes longer than Lescott.

Therefore, as Ferdinand and Lescott come out on top in this comparison they would still be the first choice centre back partnership for England this summer.

Next Page: Centre Midfield and Wingers compared… Including Sinclar, Pilkington, Britton, Osman, Spearing and Dyer.

James Amey
James Amey
Head of the writers here on EPLIndex! Can also be found on Twitter - @jamesamey316
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