West Ham United winger Andriy Yarmolenko has been ruled out for the rest of the season as he becomes the latest member of Manuel Pellegrini’s squad to be struck down with the injury curse.
The former Borussia Dortmund man was dealt the crippling blow during Saturday’s Premier League defeat to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur at London Stadium. Today, we carry out a statistics-driven tactical analysis to find out just how much Yarmolenko will be missed by the Hammers this campaign, join us.
The Injury
Firstly, we are going to take an in-depth look at the injury that was suffered by the 79-cap Ukrainian international, which occurred in the 38th-minute in East London and helped the Irons slip to a one-goal loss.
When turning to chase the delivery of a corner that he had aided in winning, the 29-year-old trod awkwardly and fell to the ground screaming in agony and holding his Achilles heel. The day after he was stretchered off in tears against the backdrop of the London Stadium applause, it was reported that he would face six months and, in all likelihood, the rest of the season out, this was later confirmed by the club along with the fact that his surgery on Monday had gone well.
Position
For the next phase of our analysis, before we start analysing any of Yarmolenko’s fantastic stats from the start of his life in Claret & Blue, we are going to analyse the position and role he has been playing in for Pellegrini, so far.
As the graphic, acquired from our good friends over at wyscout.com, tells us, the Ukraine legend has been mainly operating in the wide right position, this has been alongside Marko Arnautovic and Felipe Anderson as part of what was quickly turning into a fearsome front three in East London.
The heatmap, to the left of the aforementioned position map, backs this up with the majority of Yarmolenko’s time being spent on the right flank in his nine league appearances in 2018/2019 thus far. From this position, Yarmolenko has been able to cut in on his dangerous left foot and cause defences all kind of problems, helping him to get his two goals, both scored in the away victory over Everton, the first PL win of the term for Pellegrini’s men.
Key Stats
Next, it’s time for the main part of this tactical analysis where we are going to be analysing Yarmolenko’s key statistic averages from his competitive West Ham career to date, following his summer move from the Bundesliga.
In order to do this, we have used the fantastic Wyscout site once more to bring you the above graphic, containing all the stats we need on Yarmolenko’s 18/19 in the two competitions he’s featured in for the club, the Premier League and Carabao Cup.
In the image is a breakdown of each of the ten matches and a column of averages, for today, we are only going to be focusing on the averages of the 6ft 2 attacker.
The first stat we are drawn to, all of these being per 90 minutes, is total actions and the rate of success he’s enjoyed in them, averaging a very busy 74.77, with an impressive 60.1 per cent being successful.
All season, he has carried a strong goal threat within the front three, with an average of 0.31 per game, which is more than respectable for a wide player, although he is yet to assist but does manage over two shots with a 35.8% accuracy, along with a sweet expected goals rating of 0.36.
Passing has clearly been one of the better sides of his tight overall game this season, achieving a pass completion rate of comfortably over 50% from both of his average 41.66 and 2.33 passes and trickier long passes, to go with a dangerous 3.11 crosses, over a third of which are on target.
The superb stats continue for Yarmolenko as we move onto dribbling, embarking on 6.37 dribbles per match and completing a remarkable 87.9% of them.
The tall wide man is never one to shy away from confrontation, as evidenced by his average total of just south of 22 duels in Claret & Blue, although the image tells us that he could have won plenty more of them. 2.18 interceptions is far better than most in his position, displaying his excellent reading of the game.
We close with a slightly disappointing 10.57 losses, though he does see plenty of the ball and only a quarter come in his own half on average, to go with 69% of his 4.51 recoveries coming in a fantastic position to win the ball back, in the opposition half. However, his disciplinary record hasn’t been the best, his two yellow cards thus far meaning he has averaged as many yellows as goals this campaign.
Overall, these stats are nothing short of fantastic for a player adapting to the best and therefore, trickiest league in the word in the Premier League and would match up to any well-established winger in the top-flight. What club wouldn’t miss a star with these capabilities?
Who Will Replace Him?
The injury will not only frustrate Pellegrini in terms of missing the services of one of his marquee summer signings for such a long period, but also in that he now has a dilemma of a possible three options to replace him for the next match.
Should midfielder Pedro Obiang remain out injured for the trip to the King Power Stadium, that will leave winger Robert Snodgrass on the left of midfield, with either youngster Grady Diangana or the more experienced Michail Antonio slotting into the front three. Or, he could opt for Javier Hernandez and change the formation completely, a tricky one, for sure.
Summary
Our statistical tactical analysis today has found that Yarmolenko will be a huge miss to West Ham for the remainder of the season, a huge injury blow that they could have really done without with the likes of Jack Wilshere and Manuel Lanzini still on the treatment table.
While there are more than enough attacking options waiting in the wings to take the place of the Ukraine man, the quality of his stats has shown us that his performances will be hard to live up to. For the rest of 2018/2019, the Hammers will be without a player who could have potentially lit up the PL in his first season, one that will be sorely missed on the pitch.
