HomeZ OLD CATEGORIESAston Villa (NN)Striker signings - which had most impact? Benteke, RvP, Lukaku & Michu

Striker signings – which had most impact? Benteke, RvP, Lukaku & Michu

New Striker Impact

One of the most interesting statistics that the Premier League season threw up this season was that out of the 6 top goal-scorers in the Premier League, 4 of them were new signings for their teams for the 2012/2013 season. It is unlikely that a Premier League season has ever seen so many forward signings work out so well.

But of the 4 players in the top 6 goal scorers which player made the biggest contribution to their team’s fortunes on a purely statistical basis? There are 3 statistical fields on which my judgement will be made; The individual players number of goals, their number of assists and the amount of goals scored by the team as a whole.

1) Robin Van Persie

Robin Van Persie was the Premier League’s top goal scorer with 26 goals and if we were ignoring statistics, you’d be hard pressed to say that Van Persie wasn’t the most important of the season as in my mind, there is no doubt it was his amount of goals that made the difference this season for Manchester United this season as they won the Premier League in Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season as manager.

However, this is purely statistics based so this is how much of a contribution RVP has made to Manchester United this season. Alongside his 26 league goals, Van Persie also created 8 goals for his team-mates. This makes a contribution of 34 goals out of the league winners 86 goals.

2) Christian Benteke

The Aston Villa forward was signed for 7 million pounds and at that price, he has proved to be one of the bargain’s of the season by finishing the 4th top goal-scorer in the Premier League this season, even more impressive when you consider the struggles Aston Villa faced for the majority of the season as they battled relegation.

Benteke grabbed 19 goals for Villa, missing out on the chance to get a 20th after being suspended for the final game with Wigan. In addition to this, Benteke got 4 assists for his team, meaning a contribution to 23 of Villa’s 47 Premier League goals.

3) Michu

Whilst Christian Benteke was one of the bargain’s of the season, there is no doubt that Spanish star Michu was THE bargain of the season, with a well documented cost of £2 Million pounds for the attacking midfielder/striker. When you consider Michu grabbed 15 La Liga goals the previous season, it is an even more impressive bit of business from Swansea to capture Michu.

Michu scored 18 league goals for the Swans as they ended an impressive 2nd season in the Premier League in 9th place with the Capital One cup also added to their trophy cabinet. However, Michu only made 2 goals for the team, quite surprising when you consider his preferred position is actually playing behind the main striker. Therefore, Michu has contributed to 20 goals out of Swansea’s 47.

4) Romelu Lukaku

The Belgian forward is the youngest of the 4 strikers in this statistical comparison, only turning 20 towards the end of this season. Lukaku wasn’t getting a look in at Chelsea so was loaned to West Brom for the 2012/13 season to gain some experience of the Premier League, by the end of this loan spell Lukaku has become one of the most sought after forwards in the Premier League and a man who is causing great debate between Chelsea fans, as to whether he should stay or be loaned out for another season.

West Brom will certainly be hoping that Lukaku is loaned out again and that they can get him, as Lukaku scored 17 goals for the Baggies, the most Premier League goals scored in a single season by a West Brom player. Lukaku’s all round game improved as the year went on and ended with 4 assists, meaning he contributed to 21 of the 53 Premier League goals scored by West Brom.

Those are the statistics, here is a table comparing their respective contributions to their teams;

[table id=237 /]

Therefore, of the 4 strikers compared in this piece, it is Christian Benteke who statistically made the biggest contribution to his team and arguably made the difference in keeping Villa’s Premier League stauts in tact. It is little wonder then that Benteke is being pursued by some of the biggest clubs in the Premier League and other top European teams.

[box_light]All of the stats from this article have been taken from the Opta Stats Centre at EPLIndex.comSubscribe Now (Includes author privileges!) Check out our new Top Stats feature on the Stats Centre which allows you to compare all players in the league & read about new additions to the stats centre.[/box_light]

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