Amin Younes has not been up to his best so far this season. The German, who has been struggling to find his form, racked up a mind blowing 31 shots without scoring a single goal. To compare this to other players: Ziyech scored 3 goals in 45 shots while Davy Klaassen, one of the best in terms of shot conversion, has so far took 24 shots scoring 8 goals.
Daley Sinkgraven has been one of the revelations this season. People are already speculating on when he will be called up for the Dutch national team and to be fair, he’s doing a great job at his new position of left wingback. As the former Heerenveen player was brought up as a midfielder, you’d expect him to lack in defense. Remarkably though, he’s averaging 3.4 successful tackles per 90 minutes and funnily enough exactly 3.4 interceptions per 90 minutes as well. If you compare this to his predecessor Mitchell Dijks, who scrapes up 2.5 successful tackles and 2.4 interceptions per 90 minutes, our new wingback is doing significantly better. Offensively he is also the better player. Where Dijks attempts 2.5 dribbles with just 0.5 per 90 minutes being successful, Sinkgraven attempts 3.9 and succeeds with 2.2. Sinkgraven also outshines Dijks in terms of key passes per 90 minutes. The newly ‘transformed midfielder’ managed to give 1.5 key passes per 90 where Dijks only has 1.1. All and all there is a lot to be said about Sinkgraven’s new role, but the argument that he is not good enough defensively can easily be countered if you look at the stats.
https://twitter.com/ajaxdailydotcom/status/804373184996851713
Another questionable position in the team is that of the right back. Joël Veltman, former centreback, has been playing at the right back spot for quite a while now leaving a promising talent, Kenny Tete, stuck on the bench. Veltman is averaging 4 tackles along with 3.4 interceptions per 90 minutes, where as Tete makes 3 tackles and intercepts the opponents play just 1.5 times every 90 minutes. Attacking wise Veltman has 1.1 successful dribbles and 0.5 key passes per 90 minutes where his teammate Tete only has 0.5 successful dribbles. However, Tete is better at creating chances with 2.5 key passes per 90 minutes. In this case it’s just what you prefer, there is no real winner here.
The final piece of statistical information I would like to share with you is one I haven’t gathered myself. Twitter user @11tegen11 calculated who is most likely to win the Eredivisie title this year based on the matches thus far. He has created a model using goals, expected goals and passing to figure out who is the best candidate to win the league, and with 64% Ajax have the best odds. Feyenoord follows with 23% and PSV is in third with 13%. This model is only based on these three teams so any outsiders are not involved in the calculations. Check the tweet below to see how these odds have changed so far throughout the season.
With two more dropped points, PSV now slide to third favorites for the title.
Feyenoord on the rise, but Ajax the clear favorite right now. pic.twitter.com/XMuu91sUQR— 11tegen11 (@11tegen11) December 5, 2016