HomeFeatured ArticlesHas Steven Taylor Improved At All? Stats from 08/09 onwards

Has Steven Taylor Improved At All? Stats from 08/09 onwards

This is a question frequently asked by Newcastle fans, especially as Steven Taylor continues to do the same stupid things that he has done throughout his entire career. The latest classic Taylor moment came in the loss against Manchester City during the Newcastle’s first match of the current season. He foolishly decided to fling an elbow, at Sergio Aguero, when the ball was coming towards the two in the air. There was no reason to do this as the Geordie had the beating of the Argentinian in the air. Moreover, the incident is even more ridiculous because there were Sky cameras all around the ground, so there was no chance he was going to get away with it. All it did was to create a huge issue for his teammates who were already 2-0 down at the time of the incident.

Steven Taylor - Improved

Taylor2009
Taylor Stats 2008-9

During the relegation season of 2008/9, Taylor played a total of 27 matches. He had a ground 50-50 win rate of 51% with one coming every 22.78 minutes, while he had an aerial 50-50 win rate of 71% with each one coming 36.16 minutes apart. Taylor had a good tackle success rate of 80.77% as he attempted a tackle every 88 minutes. The centre back made four defensive errors throughout the campaign (570 minutes per mistake).

Taylor2011
Taylor Stats 2010-11

In his next campaign in the top flight (2010/11), he only made 12 appearances for the Magpies. His ground 50-50 win rate fell to 48% with one coming every 43.78 minutes. He was more successful in the air with an aerial 50-50 win rate of 80% – as he contested in the aerial duel every 33.57 minutes. His tackle success rate stayed roughly the same at 80% with a tackle coming every 201 minutes. The defender didn’t make one error during this season though.

Taylor Stats 2011-12
Taylor Stats 2011-12

Injury hit his season (again) during 2011/12 as his side did brilliantly to finish fifth. Taylor made only 14 appearances. His ground 50-50 success rate rose to 71% as he made one every 37.06 minutes. On the other hand his aerial 50-50 success rate fell to 61%, when competing aerially once every 35 minutes. His tackle success rate fell slightly to 72.73%, as he made a tackle every 115 minutes. He also made one defensive error in this season.

Taylor Stats 2012-13
Taylor Stats 2012-13

Last season he made 25 appearances as Newcastle struggled to 16th. His ground 50-50 success rate fell to 59% (one every 36.81 minutes). Taylor’s aerial 50-50 success rate stayed roughly the same at 63% (one every 18.41 minutes). He made a tackle once every 133 minutes and he came out successful 75% of the time. Taylor made two errors last season, continuing a trend. The stats only back up that Taylor has never really made a significant improvement over the last few seasons. He continues to be clumsy in and around the box which leads to a few goals a season. He must handball more than the average player but he has managed to disguise that rather well as he is rarely penalised for it. He does continue to make mistakes each season which create problems for Newcastle.

In the last two campaigns he has failed to score once, whereas in the first two seasons looked at in this article, he scored seven times. This is an area in his game in which he has taken a huge step backwards. In recent seasons the Newcastle fans have questioned Taylor’s footballing intelligence and the recent incident against Manchester City just shows he is still lacking in it. He is still making the same mistakes that he made when he first burst onto the scene. He should no longer be a starting player as Fabricio Coloccini and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa have both looked a lot better than the Newcastle academy graduate. Hopefully the competition will cause Taylor to improve his own game which he hasn’t done for a number of years. His naivety continues to shine through, and he has never lived up to the potential that he showed early in his career.

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