Exclusive: If The Irish Squad Was Picked Based Purely On Stats

Using the analytical prowess behind new startup Squawka.com, we can reveal that if Trap and Tardelli were choosing their team solely based on stats from the Premier League, it would look like this. Obviously no McGeady, Keane or McShane involved, but Ciaran Clarke is in, Wes and a fella called Stephen Ireland.

The Influence Score is a real-time analysis of every game each of the players played and a detailed breakdown of the players on-ball actions, the deployment of these actions, the outcome of the move instigated/involved in, the players natural position and the area of the pitch the action took place. Overall we are scoring over 2.5million different in-game scenarios.

We can filter the score to understand how well each player performed in possession, attack & defence.

The reason for the out-of-position players is that:

a) they are the highest ranked players by some margin for the team

b) they have played those positions before

c) they have shown better attributes than their peers (for example, Ward has a good attacking/possession score - whereas   O'Shea is better at strictly defending)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgT2IweDpHo