Chris Beesley looks at the statistics behind Jack Harrison's best performance of the season for Everton at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Comments
Sport
Jack Harrison showed perfect timing to break his scoring duck this the season for Everton following manager David Moyes’ stark warning that attacking players who couldn’t contribute tangible figures would have no longevity under him. Ahead of the Blues’ trip to Molineux, neither Harrison or fellow on-loan winger Jesper Lindstrom had a goal or assist to their name this term and Moyes was asked about the fact in his pre-match press conference.
Article continues below
The 61-year-old replied: “Let’s be fair, you won’t have longevity if you’re not going to get me assists and you’re not going to get me goals. You have to find ways of coming up with those numbers, it’s just the world that we’re in.
“We can get all the statistics now and we can talk about it. Those two are both attacking players, I think both of them have done well but yeah, I need goals from them, I need assists from them.
READ MORE: Friedkin Group are trying to improve in every way and it could transform Everton next seasonREAD MORE: I'm all for Everton going without a director of football - it's what the club needs right now
“They both need to improve. They’ve done a really good job in recent weeks but they’re parts of the game we want them to improve on.”
Everton’s only goal in the 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers came of course from a Harrison goal from a Lindstrom assist so in that respect the pair are now both off the mark. Replays showed that the Denmark international actually slipped when he played the ball across to tee up the opener and he was then hooked by Moyes just after the hour mark when he made way for Tim Iroegbunam.
For Harrison though, who had earlier teed up Beto for his early chance after an exchange of passes with James Garner from a short corner, it was arguably the best display of what has up to this point been a difficult campaign, with the scorer earning a score of 8 in the ECHO player ratings, his highest mark to date. Afterwards, he said: “It wasn’t quite how I imagined it but I’ll take it and hopefully I can continue to contribute a lot more.
“I’ve been working hard on and off the pitch to get off the mark. Sometimes you just need that bit of luck and I had that.”
Other than the goal, just what did Harrison do differently then? Comparisonator uses over 100 different parameters to measure players’ performances and calculated the 28-year-old has having the second highest overall Artificial Intelligence points total in the Premier League over the weekend for those in his position. Harrison was given an overall A.I. points score of 468, behind leader Luis Diaz of Liverpool on 729, with Callum Hudson-Odoi of Nottingham Forest next up on 436.
Jack Harrison's Artificial Intelligence points scores compared to other Premier League players in his position for his performance for Everton at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Jack Harrison's Artificial Intelligence points scores compared to other Premier League players in his position for his performance for Everton at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Harrison’s tally was also a massive increase on his average for the season of 182. When it came to A.I. offensive points, again only one peer (Hudson-Odoi on 353) could top Harrison’s score of 346, which was another huge leap on his average of 110.
The Stoke-on-Trent-born player ranked second in the division for shot assists with a score of 3 and expected assists on 0.53, behind Diaz for both on respective totals of 6 and 0.83. Only Savinho of Manchester City (8) and Wilson Odobert of Tottenham Hotspur (6) put more crosses in than Harrison’s figure of 5 and his hard work was also exemplified by producing 6 pressing duels, a number that only Kaoru Mitoma of Brighton & Hove Albion (11) could top.
*Comparisonator is a football data comparison tool from 271 professional leagues around the world which compares players and clubs by utilising over 100 different parameters. Click here for more details.