The genius of Rafa shines through Ryan Babel

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been tediously mulling over data during the international break, the extent of which might deem me certifiably insane. Basically I'm trying to create a 'performance database' for each and every player on our squad in an attempt to quantify as many determinants as possible to figure out what would be their optimal situation to provide maximum performance. I would probably go as far as including elements such as what they ate and at what time on match days if I could get a hold of such data, but as for now, I'm going to stick with basic corporeal information.

Though I've barely built a foundation hardly worthy of drawing any thorough conclusions, today I decided to attempt to assess Rafa's seemingly erratic use of Ryan Babel. When you take a young, inexperienced player with immense talent like Babel, it's usually best to slowly ease him into a new competitive environment as intense and grueling as the Premiership. Rafa has appeared to have done an astounding job, delicately and almost nonchalantly allowing the young Dutchman to familiarize himself with new challenges on his own. Statistically, the results have been more than just positive, they've been extraordinary.

Most sides would probably start Babel and play him as much as possible, but Rafa has the convenience of a deep squad with many players who can occupy the left flank and forward positions. Such comfort afforded our gaffer to use Babel in advantageous situations where he's most likely to utilize his talents to produce positive results and increase his confidence. The 20-year-old has only played in 16 of our 20 matches for a total of 809 minutes by way of 7 starts and 9 substitution appearances. That breaks down to roughly 50 minutes per tie, which is important when computing his contribution per a full appearance in comparison to the team's overall average output.

The data speaks for itself, when Babel is on, we appear to be a better attacking side. As a squad our standard performance consists of 2 goals with 15.3 shots, 6.5 on-goal. Our possession percentage, passing rate, and territorial advantage is 55.7%, 76.8%, and 50.6% respectively. With Babel on the pitch, all those numbers increase, some significantly. Our goals per match average increases to 2.46 on 7.9 shots-on and 17.14 attempts overall. As for the percentage stats, possession swells to 58.2%, passing rate ups to 77.9%, and territorial advantage increases to 51.1%. We average a goal every 36.8 minutes he plays. It's pretty clear that the winger/forward is quite the catalyst in our offensive forays.

Where it gets even more interesting is on defense. Babel clearly isn't much of a contributor at the other end of the pitch, but in using the 'best defense is a good offense' logic, the most telling stat that he positively effects our defensive output is the fact that, as a side, our goals against per match decreases from 0.65 to 0.53 when he's on. Taking in consideration that the obvious circumstances of statistics such as possession percentage and territorial advantage increasing for our side results in a decrease for the opposition and that a total of only 5 goals have been scored against us when Babel is playing, he's arguably just as valuable as any of our defenders.

As our season wears on, I don't expect Babel's role to change. He'll get the occasional start, particularly when cup matches come around, but for the most part I expect him to maintain his super sub status. Just because our team is a better attacking side when he's on the pitch, doesn't mean we should keep him on as much as possible. The genius of Rafa is knowing when and where to use certain players to best help the club. He's proven it with Steven Gerrard, Steve Finnan, John Arne Riise, Alvaro Arbeloa, Fernando Torres, even Craig Bellamy in the past, and now he's affirming it with Babel.