I must have missed the interview where it mentioned we were taking a more data lead approach. I enjoy looking at the data occasionally so had a look at some extremely basic criteria to see where Lewis featured against his peers last season. There were 72 players that played more than 2000 minutes in CDM/CM/. All the stats I look at are pro rata'd to per 90 minutes.
There are a ton of things that come into it such as style of play etc, but these are just the raw numbers as may be of some interest to someone.
Lewis played in a variety of positions last season. 548 mins at CAM, ST for 238, and 2545 in CM/CDM. 5 of his 6 league goals actually came from when he was playing in CM which is interesting so that is why I am comparing him to other CM's as thats where he logged is most minutes.
Of those the ones where Lewis features very highly is Aerial duels he featured in the 4th most of those players at 8.95 a game (average of 4.3).His win percentage was 47.08% which is about 3% better than average.
His XG (expected goals I know is hated by some) was 6th in the league from CM at 0.22 per game (average was 0.08).
Other main positive, touches of the ball in the box he ranked 5th of the CM's in L2 last season.
So a midfielder who is aerially combative and has the ability to chip in with the odd goal. His passing stats are very low in terms of volumes so does not seen to particularly dictate play, especially in a Tranmere side that had a lot of the ball. He attempted very low numbers and the average length of those passes was the lowest of the sample size.
Would rather see him at CM I think and arrive late than play further forward ALA where we put Watson last season. Unlikely to create a large amount judging from his figures, not exactly expansive in his passing. But at this level I dont think that is an issue, get the ball to our creative players and get in the box!
We know Sean is fantastic at this level at interceptions, tackles etc which will hopefully allow Lewis to get forward where he seems to be good at coming into the box, bodies in the box is something we never seemed to do well at last season so I see the benefit.
So does he jump off the page as a marquee signing, not really. Could he be a solid player that could get us 6-8 goals from midfield, yes. With so many more additions to come seems fine to me, no reason to meltdown at the very least!
Very good post! Don't suppose you fancy doing the same for Kabamba and Pinnock too do you?