AFCB PL Injuries - The Stats

kirsikka

kirsikka

UTC Legend
Since we got promoted it feels like we've been suffering an almost perpetual injury crisis. Fans of most clubs think that though. So let's see what the injury table stats say about it.

First, a couple of caveats. Each table should be seen as discreet in that I can't guarantee the same counting method has been used on each. Comparing numbers within the table is fine, but across tables you just have to look at the trend against other clubs in each.

Secondly, I couldn't find a table for the full 2015/16 season so you have a table to mid-January and then a slightly odd 'points system' table that one of the injury websites published at the end of that year.

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Over the four seasons we're averaging higher than we would like compared to the others but not so out there as to be a huge worry. Especially when you take into account the series of long term injuries. There's room for improvement certainly but perhaps it isn't as bad as it seems to us fans.

It does make you wonder how well we might do if we managed to string together a season without a bad run of missing players. Wolves last season is ridiculous!
 
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kirsikka said:
Since we got promoted it feels like we've been suffering an almost perpetual injury crisis. Fans of most clubs think that though. So let's see what the injury table stats say about it.

First, a couple of caveats. Each table should be seen a discreet in that I can't guarantee the same counting method has been used on each. Comparing numbers within the table is fine, but across tables you just have to look at the trend against other clubs in each.

Secondly, I couldn't find a table for the full 2015/16 season so you have a table to mid-January and then a slightly odd 'points system' table that one of the injury websites published at the end of that year.

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Over the four seasons we're averaging higher than we would like compared to the others but not so out there as to be a huge worry. Especially when you take into account the series of long term injuries. There's room for improvement certainly but perhaps it isn't as bad as it seems to us fans.

It does make you wonder how well we might do if we managed to string together a season without a bad run of missing players. Wolves last season is ridiculous!
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I think if we could actually manage a season with all our top players fit it might just be our Leicester moment. Will obviously never happen though :(
 
Does the size of the squad make a difference to the stats? You've got the 25 registered players, but if you have a bunch of U21s that don't need to be registered but get injured, do they count in the table? Most teams won't make too much difference, wondering if some of the top clubs it may do?
 
Nice post @kirsikka. The caveat I’d put on these stats (and I know you get this but for the benefit of others) is how many players they include in each squad.

Obviously there is a 25 man limit but many clubs include a number of U21’s. Rashford would be counted as an U21 as separate to the 25 in these stats. Certainly in our first 2 PL seasons, we played hardly any U21’s.

So what I’m getting at is if these stats include injuries to Rashford as an U21 but not Corey Jordan, then it would make our stats appear better than they really are.
 
One factor in your perceived injury levels is how key the players were.

I think losing our record defensive signing Mings in the first seven minutes, Gradel our big new attacking hope, Wilson our only ever England scorer (twice), Cook our first England international, Franno our club captain, Wilshere our only other England international and now Brooks a great hope and key player and Kelly before we have even seen him play.

I’m comparing that to how often say Liverpool haven’t had Firmino, Salah or Mane.... but their injury count would have included Ings who was about as important as, say, Mousset was to us.

That’s probably why it seems worse than those stats, although those stats are pretty bad:
 
Coobster said:
Does the size of the squad make a difference to the stats? You've got the 25 registered players, but if you have a bunch of U21s that don't need to be registered but get injured, do they count in the table? Most teams won't make too much difference, wondering if some of the top clubs it may do?
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No idea, I just took the tables from different places. I'm unsure on their individual methodology and will likely vary from table to table

Tinpot Club said:
So what I’m getting at is if these stats include injuries to Rashford as an U21 but not Corey Jordan, then it would make our stats appear better than they really are.
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As above, I'm unsure but it's a fair comment.

Neil Dawson said:
One factor in your perceived injury levels is how key the players were.
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Absolutely agree. You can also combine that with the two points made above. When a few years back Spurs had a striker injury crisis they reached into their top level academy and plucked Harry Kane from it. Man Utd did the same with Rashford.

Even further down the table you can find plenty of lesser examples of merely competent PL players getting a chance to step up through injury. Almost every other team that we've faced since we got promoted will have had the backup of an academy set up that expected to graduate a production line of at least Championship standard youth players, if not better. This will have served as an emergency blanket for them in times of injury crisis.

Our academy has been a setup aiming for L1 players until very recently so the chances of having a freebie that can cover to the required level have been exceptionally slim. I may be missing someone but I think in the last 25 years the only youth products we've had go on to produce in the PL are Ings and Vokes.

I think we tried to shortcut this deficit by signing some highly touted youngsters in Hyndman, Mahoney and Ramsdale but that hasn't quite panned out as hoped. There's still potential for one of them though!

It may be that this Corey Jordan and Sam Surridge are the first youth team players to give us a little extra backup in-house when we need it.

Yikes! It sounds like infrastructure does matter after all. Nobody tell you know who.

So it seems that overall our volume of injuries hasn't been exceptional but the players that we've lost to those injuries and the lack of a PL academy system have combined to make it seem worse than it was.
 
We have been 3rd worse, 12th worse, 9th worse and 6th worse and start this year the worst. That gives us an average position of 7th worse not counting this year and 6th if you do.
 
First season we were 6th worse according to the odd full season table. We were only third in the partial season table.

That makes us 8th on average before this season. High but not a statistical anomaly.

It's been said the club are looking into it and rightly so. That should be a standard ongoing process anyway. Anything that reduces unavailable time for our most expensive assets should be investigated.
 
Thanks Kirsikka. I've tabulated the data (cos I'm sad like that) and found some injury numbers for 2017/18. I haven't found a way of neatly displaying the data graphically yet.

For those teams who have been consistently in the PL over the 4 seasons I've also added the grand totals. We rank 9/13 for injuries and 6/13 for days lost to injury. All in all fairly unremarkable.

Manure & West Ham's stats are the worst of the bunch, and Leicester (or Wolves!) appear to be the club to emulate.

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