West Bromwich Albion are said to be closing in on a season long loan deal for Manchester City winger Scott Sinclair, with the option of a permanent deal at the end of the loan spell. Sinclair is certainly a signing that West Brom need, as there is a severe lack of pace in the wide areas, mostly down to the continued absence of Peter Odemwingie who has been exiled from the first team squad after all of the transfer window commotion of last season.
Odemwingie’s actions were unfortunate from Albion’s perspective, as the Nigerian was a key part of the formation that worked so well for Steve Clarke, providing a pacy, attacking option on one wing which complimented the creative guile of Zoltan Gera on the opposite side and the sheer workrate and penalty box poaching of Shane Long.
Despite seeing very little action last season, Sinclair still has a good reputation from his debut Premier League season with Swansea and on the face of it seems like the perfect fit for The Baggies. But how does he compare to Odemwingie statistically? I’m going to compare Odemwingie’s stats for last season with Sinclair’s stats in the 2011/12 season, as there is limited statistics for Sinclair’s time at Manchester City.
Goals and Shooting
In Steve Clarke’s preferred 4-3-3 formation, there is a reliance upon the two wide players to contribute goals to the cause, with only one striker normally playing in the formation.
Sinclair in his full season with Swansea managed to score 8 goals in 35 starts, which from a wide player is a pretty impressive ratio although Odemwingie managed 5 goals in only 13 starts. Another interesting point from the number of goals scored is that of the 8 goals Sinclair managed, 5 of them were from the penalty spot where as only one of Odemwingie’s goals was from 12 yards.
Odemwingie and Sinclair have very similar ratios when it comes to shot accuracy and chance conversion rate, with Odemwingie having a better shot accuracy and chance conversion rate by only 1%. The biggest difference between the pair is when it comes to clear cut chance conversion rate, where Odemwingie has an outstanding 75% success rate from his sample, whilst Sinclair has a more modest yet perfectly acceptable rate of 36%.
In terms of contributing goals to the side, it is pretty clear that Odemwingie is superior in that department, although Steve Clarke would certainly be more than pleased with Sinclair scoring 8 goals in his full season at Swansea.
Assists and Chance Creation
As a more traditional winger, it should come as no surprise that Sinclair’s statistics exceed those of Odemwingie in this area, for the most part. Sinclair contributed 4 assists in his time at Swansea, whilst last season Odemwingie managed 3. Sinclair also created more chances for his team-mates, with 27 created(plus 4 assists)  compared to the 22 chances created by Odemwingie.
However, Odemwingie created two more clear cut chances for his team-mates than Sinclair and also creates chances at a quicker rate than Sinclair, creating a chance every 51 minutes for his team-mates, with Sinclair taking nearly double the amount of time to create a chance at a 101 minutes.
Dribbling and Crossing
The Graphic used under the previous heading also shows Sinclair and Odemwingie dribbling and crossing capabilities. Sinclair attempted far more dribbles than Odemwingie, with 139 compared to the 55 attempted by the exiled Nigerian forward. Sinclair also had more successful dribbles than Odemwingie, although the current West Brom man was successful with 54% of his dribbles whilst Sinclair was successful with only 48% of his.
Sinclair does have far better statistics than Odemwingie when it comes to crossing of the ball. For a wide player, Odemwingie has a pretty shocking record with only 5 successful crosses from 42 attempted, with a crossing accuracy of a mere 12%. Sinclair attempted more crosses than Odemwingie(56) had more accurate crosses than Odemwingine(13) with a far better crossing accuracy of 23%. This is one area where it shows a more traditional winger will have better success that a forward playing in a wide role.
The Manchester City winger would certainly be a good addition for The Baggies. Whilst Sinclair may not match the goal tally of Odemwinige over the course of a season, he will create more opportunities for his team-mates to get on the score-sheet whilst still providing the pacy out ball to spring from defence to attack that West Brom have lacked since Odemwingie’s antics in the January Transfer window.
