Third of Season Match stats
We reach a third of the season gone on Wednesday. Interesting then (to me at least) to look at player minutes played statshttps://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/wycombe-wanderers/leistungsdaten/verein/2805/plus/1?reldata=GB2&2020
Some individual players have surprised me at least (Kashket played far more minutes than I would have expected at start of season, Charles and Gape (through injury) far less.
Overall big thing that stands out is how much continuity there is from last season and how little impact our new permanent signings have so far made. Of the seventeen players with the most minutes, fourteen were here last season with only Horgan as a permanent signing plus two loanees breaking into the team on a regular. Uche, Tafazolli and McCarthy (the first two through injuries) have made very little impact.
Surprising perhaps then just how competitive we have been.
Comments
In some respects continuity is key. Once we had arrived at a self-picking lineup in mid October - the last time we lost a home game - we were looking remarkably competitive and certainly worthy of a few more points than we actually achieved. There may well be a break in continuity tomorrow as a result of the injuries in central midfield and for that reason (and because of my perception of Stoke, from years of watching them on TV, as having a very physical tradition) I think we will do well to get a point.
Of course, there is no more important continuity than that of an excellent, tight knit and unfettered management team.
It seems to me to have been a feature since we got into League One of how much continuity we have had from the players that got us promotion from League Two and how much success we had from it. I remember thinking this time last year how many minutes were played by our 'existing' players rather than the new ones that had been bought in the Summer.
I expect that this will switch slightly as the season evolves and the newer players bed in even more but it shows that is very much evolution rather than revolution. To my mind, it is a great sign that our level of success is sustainable (assuming that we can find a solution to the Bayo 'problem'). Hats off yet again to Gareth for this because I feel even more attachment to the current group of players because there is that consistency