Presenting the 2016-17 Premier League Anti-Awards
The 2016-17 Premier League anti-awards take a look at some of the worst statistical achievements in the English top flight this season.
FanSided’s NBA editor, Ian Levy, recently published the seventh edition of his NBA Anti-Awards over at Nylon Calculus. The awards recognize the very worst statistical achievements in basketball each year, so here’s a similar look at who the numerical failures have been in the Premier League during 2016-17. All data is correct up to and including matches played on May 17.
The Stewart Downing Award
This award goes to the player who has the most shots without scoring a goal. Downing had 72 for Liverpool in 2011-12 yet didn’t once find the back of the net.
There’s only one player who has had over 40 shots without getting on the score sheet this season: Jason Puncheon. The 30-year-old has fired in 45 shots at goal, but none whistled past the opposition goalkeeper.
His shot accuracy of 24 percent isn’t wildly below the league average of 34 percent. It’s the fact 66 percent of his shots have been from outside the box (the average is 41 percent) that is holding him back here. He has averaged five league goals per season over the past four years, so his victory is surprising.
The Papiss Cissé Award
This award goes to the player who misses the largest proportion of their big chances. Papiss Cissé of Newcastle missed 12 of 14 (86 percent) in 2013-14. Players have to miss at least 10 big chances to be considered here.
Seven players have qualified for this award, and there are some big names among them. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Diego Costa, Sergio Aguero and Dele Alli all met the minimum criteria for entry.
The winner, though, is Marko Arnautovic of Stoke. The Austrian has missed 11 of his 14 big chances this season, which goes a long way toward explaining why his league goal tally is down from 11 last season to six in this campaign.
In recent weeks, he’s missed golden opportunities against Swansea, West Ham and Bournemouth, and Stoke failed to win all three matches. Doing well in this award can be very costly for a player’s team. Just ask this season’s runner-up: Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Eden Hazard Award
This award goes to the player who has the lowest proportion of the chances they created classified as big chances. Just 3 percent of the chances that Hazard laid on were top quality last season. Players must create at least 60 chances to enter here.
The PFA player of the year for 2014-15, Eden Hazard, didn’t have a happy time of it last season, and subsequently had this award named in his honor. As much as he has performed much better in this campaign, winning FanSided’s Player of the Season award along the way, he has become the first repeat winner in our awards.
On average, around one in eight chances that are created in the Premier League are top quality opportunities. For Hazard, that figure has been roughly one in 28 this season.
The fact that one of the Premier League’s best players has topped this award for two seasons running is baffling to say the least. He does create a lot of chances outside the box (as you can see by using this dashboard), and these are unlikely to be classified as big chances. Whatever the reason, Hazard’s poor ratio of big chances has led him to assist fewer goals than four of his teammates this season.
The Theo Walcott Award
This award goes to the player with the lowest cross completion rate in the division. Arsenal’s Theo Walcott completed just 16.8 percent of his crosses in 2012-13. A player needs to attempt 150 crosses for consideration here.
Approximately one in every five crosses in the Premier League reaches its intended target. Or a player on the same team, at least. A lot can depend on the type of players waiting in the box to receive the ball, though, which is why teams with target strikers tend to have the players with the best crossing success rate.
The lack of one at Liverpool may explain why James Milner wins this award for 2016-17, having completed only 19.8 percent of his crosses. The former England international had the second most crossed assists in the Premier League last season, though, and the presence of Christian Benteke must’ve been in some part responsible for that. His crossing efforts have largely been woeful this term, and he’s a worthy winner of this award.
The Yannick Bolasie Award
This award goes to the player who completes the lowest proportion of his attempted dribbles. Yannick Bolasie has posted both the first and third worst such figures among all Premier League players across the last six seasons. Players must attempt at least 150 dribbles to make the grade here.
Bolasie’s dribbling performance has been much improved since he moved to Everton, but he’s been injured so didn’t attempt enough to compete in this award this season.
The winner is perhaps a slightly surprising one: Riyad Mahrez. He certainly hasn’t hit the heights of 2015-16, which applies to everyone in the Leicester team in fairness, and his dribble success rate has dropped from 52 percent down to 44.
Even last season he was below the league average of 61 percent, and Mahrez is a fair way adrift of the competition for this award this season. The Algerian would have had to have completed an extra 11 dribbles to reel in the runner up, Raheem Sterling.
The Joshua King Award
This award goes to the player who most often loses the ball due to poor control. The players considered here have all done so at least 80 times.
In 2015-16, Josh King of Bournemouth lost the ball due to poor control once for every 11.5 of his touches. This was the worst such performance across the previous five completed seasons. He may have improved this figure to 15.0 this term, but that’s still bad enough to make him the runner up in this particular anti-award.
The entry qualifier of 80 bad touches was selected last month, and our winner only sneaked into consideration thanks to four unsuccessful touches in his last match. Step forward, Harry Kane.
As he has scored 22 league goals this season, Kane is probably not too concerned with how frequently his poor control costs his team possession of the ball. His rate of one bad touch for every 13.7 he takes is the third worst such ratio in the past six seasons.
The Chico Flores Award
This award goes to the defender who wins the lowest proportion of his aerial duels. It is named in honor of Swansea’s Spanish center-back Chico Flores, who won 51 percent of them in 2013-14. Players must contest at least 150 aerial duels to be in contention for the award.
The average success rate for duels is obviously 50 percent, as one player wins it and one player loses it. For defenders who meet the entrance criteria for this one though, the average rate of success is 64 percent.
Robert Huth of Leicester has only just squeaked into contention here by contesting 163 aerial duels. He’ll wish he hadn’t, though. By winning just 55 percent of them he takes home this award for 2016-17.
Much like club teammate Mahrez in the dribbles category, Huth has seen his performance tail off since last season. In his case, he won 64 percent of his aerial duels as the Foxes unexpectedly powered their way to the 2015-16 title.
The Carl Jenkinson Award
This award goes to the defender who most frequently gives away penalties and scores own goals. Carl Jenkinson did so every 329 minutes in 2015-16. Players must give away at least one penalty, score at least one own goal and total at least three to be considered for this award.
This season hasn’t been truly awful for calamitous defenders, as none of the entrants make it into the top nine worst performers across the last six seasons. Five players have met the minimum criteria for consideration this year, though, which is more than each of those previous campaigns mustered.
The longtime leader here was Alfie Mawson of Swansea, but thanks to an own-goal in a 3-1 defeat at Goodison Park, Ben Mee of Burnley takes the pennant.
His two goals and two penalties conceded have been split across four matches, all of which Burnley lost. The Clarets have done well to stay up this season, but it might have been even more comfortable if not for Mee’s occasional gaffes.
The John Ruddy Award
This award goes to the goalkeeper who has made mistakes most frequently. Norwich’s John Ruddy made a mistake every 128 minutes last season. Players have to have seen at least 2,000 minutes of pitch time to be included.
The nature of goalkeeping means there are countless opportunities to make costly mistakes. A keeper can make an on-the-ball error which directly leads to a shot, fail to claim a cross, lose an aerial duel with an opposing player or make an unsuccessful clearance.
This year’s most frequent maker of these mistakes has been Hugo Lloris. This is definitely a surprising one, as Spurs have conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League. The Frenchman has made six errors leading to shots, which only Lukasz Fabianski, with seven, can top.
In fairness to Lloris, there have been 22 worse goalkeeping performances by this measure in the previous five seasons, but he has been the worst of the bunch in 2016-17.
The Lukas Podolski Award
Our final award goes to the player who has been substituted in the highest proportion of his starts. Lukas Podolski was taken off 23 times in his 25 league starts for Arsenal in 2012-13. Players have to have made at least 20 starts to qualify for this award.
Players can be substituted for numerous reasons: injuries, tactical switches or perhaps they’re just having a bit of a stinker. Sometimes they’re taken off once the result is secure to bask in the applause of the crowd if they’ve been man of the match. Whatever the reason, it has happened to Shinji Okazaki a lot this season.
Much like with Harry Kane in the bad touch category, Okazaki only became eligible for contention in his most recent game. He started for the 20th time this season, and for the 19th time he failed to complete the match. Hopefully the fine goal he scored against Manchester City will have comforted him a little at least.
Eden Hazard may have won the award named in his honor, but his performance was at least better than last season. Our final award will have a new name next season, as Okazaki’s substitution rate of 95 percent surpasses Lukas Podolski’s previous benchmark.
Next: Is possession dead in the Premier League?
Hearty congratulations go to our 10 winners in the 2016-17 Premier League Anti-Awards. May they spend their summers basking in the glory of a job badly done.