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Dennis's and the academy's statistical performance - Jeanious - 2026-05-02 There is no midfielder impact yet as I kept breaking the app trying to make it, I gave up for now. Also there is no graph for most of the week 17 things, because I forgot to add them to the snapshot export, sorry :( Intro The season is now halfway done and Dennis is a bit more invested than he probably expected. What started as just showing up, scoring goals, and seeing where it goes has slowly turned into more. So Dennis decided to take it a step further. Inspired by @McLumberjack, he ended up building his own app to track pretty much every statistic that is available in the academy index, uf it could be counted it was in there somewhere. At this point he’s clicking through charts like a man possesed, and there’s a real chance he now spends more time looking at numbers than actually playing football, which is probably not ideal but we’ll ignore that for now. The idea is simple. If he wants to move past being just another striker in the league, he needs to understand where he statistically stands. Not where he thinks he stands after scoring one goal and feeling like prime Ruud van Nistelrooy for 10 minutes, but what the numbers say over time. Where he is ahead, where he is behind, and where he’s just… painfully average. At the same time, digging through all those stats made something else pretty clear (I have no real use for these stats but let's ignore that for the sake if this article). Most people only talk about the players that show high numbers for goals or assists, but there are unsung hero's that barely get any mention. Defenders and goalkeepers, the players doing the 'ugly' work that doesn't show up in the highlights. Dennis also realised something slightly concerning. Some defenders aren’t just there for their pretty face, they are statistically a problem. The kind that get compared to a ground to air interception system, blocks shots for fun, and somehow always stands in the correct spot. So while Dennis is using all this data to improve his own game, he’s also started paying more attention to the rest of the league. Not just his competitor strikers, but the players making life difficult for them. If there’s one thing Dennis has learned from his growing statistics obsession, it’s that defenders are not just “in the way”, they are basically weekly problems for attackers. So instead of focusing only on goals or assists he decided to look at the broader picture, starting with defensive impact. A combined score built from shots blocked, clearances, interceptions, tackles won, successful headers, and appearances. Basically a way of measuring how annoying a player is to face over 90 minutes. To get a clearer picture, he pulled together the first two weekly snapshots of the league. Week 17 Defensive Impact Week 17 gives the first real look at who is setting the tone defensively. At this stage, Geronimo Datbasted is leading the table with the highest impact score, closely followed by Peter Castellani and Don Banjo. Already a small group of defenders starts to separate themselves from the rest of the league. Martin Krpan is also firmly in the top section, continuing to show that physical presence alone already translates into numbers in this system. Behind them, names like Scorp E. Unshark and Joshua Homme III Esquire Limited (what kind of name is that) are still contributing, just with slightly less consistancy. At this point, the rankings still feel relatively open. Strong performances are visible, but nothing feels fully locked in yet. Week 18 Defensive Impact One week later, the graph changes, but not dramatically different. Don Banjo moves into first placee, narrowly overtaking Geronimo Datbasted, who drops slightly but remains right at the top of the league. The gap between them is minimal, more of a shift in position than a real change in their match impact. Peter Castellani stays steady in 3rd, proving for now to be a consistent performer. Martin Krpan also holds his place in 4th, continuing his trend of consistency without much movement either way. The most noticeable change happens further down, where Ewan Purves enters the rankings and immediately impacts the lower half of the table. This pushes a few of the previous bottom names further down, tightening the competition in that section. Across both weeks, the main takeaway is actually how stable the top end is. The same defenders keep appearing near the top, just trading positions around each other. Have these players found the perfect way to move around in these games? For attackers like Dennis, that’s not exactly encouraging. Because if the defenders aren’t changing much, then the problem probably isn’t the data. It’s what’s happening in front of goal. After looking at defenders, Dennis did the most logical next step (for sure this is completely normal) and moved on to goalkeepers. The goalkeeper impact score is made of course, different. It combines clean sheets, different types of saves, save percentage, expected save percentage, xG prevented, and appearances. It tries to measure how much a goalkeeper actually helps their team, or in some cases, how much they don’t (stats could be scewed if your defensive line is non-existant so you concede alot). And yes, negative impact is very much a thing. Week 17 Goalkeeper Impact Week 17 shows a pretty clear standout goalkeeper. Tony Roberts is comfortably ahead of everyone else with a strong positive impact score, basically carrying his side compared to the rest of the league. Behind him, Albert Flowers holds second place, although already a noticable step down in overall influence. Then things get a bit more interesting. Moew enBach sits almost neutral in 3rd, which is either impressive or slightly worrying depending on how you look at it. From there, the table drops off quite sharply. Umaq Yupanqui is already in negative territory, and Eric Duic sits at the bottom with one of the lowest scores, suggesting a tough week between the posts. At this stage, it already looks like there’s a clear standout goalkeeper from the rest. Week 18 Goalkeeper Impact Week 18 brings some changes to the graph. Tony Roberts remains at the top and in fact improves his score even more, now sitting at 4.32. He’s starting to look less like a goalkeeper with some good games and more like a consistent problem for any attacking team. The biggest improvement comes from Moew enBach, who moves all the way up into 2nd place. That’s one of the more noticeable shifts across both weeks, suggesting a much better individual performance or a very busy week in goal. Albert Flowers drops to 3rd, still positive but no longer pushing the top end as strongly as before, it seemed like he could have had a rough week. This could be due to the fact that he was caught in a bar the night before the game and had trouble with his double vision. At the lower end, Eric Duic and Umaq Yupanqui remain in negative territory, with Umaq actually slipping further down compared to week 17. That kind of consistency is not the good kind. Ian Degon enters the rankings in 6th with a heavily negative score, immediately landing in the “statistically rough week” category. Across both weeks, one thing is clear. Goalkeeping impact is extremely volatile. One good week can shoot you up the rankings, one bad week can bury you deep into negative numbers. And for attackers like Dennis, that means something simple. Sometimes you’re not missing chances. Sometimes you’re just running into a goalkeeper who is having a very good week. Next up was probably the most chaotic stat of them all: mistakes leading to goals. A category that includes literally everyone that has set foot on the pitch in the academy. This is the “suspicion of match fixing" category. Week 17 Mistakes Leading to Goals At the top of this very unwanted leaderboard sits Jay Pea with 2 mistakes leading directly to goals. Not exactly the kind of chart you want to be leading, but at least he's winning in something. Right behind him is a crowded group of players on 1 mistake each, including Eric Duic, S Sei, Josh Harper and Joe Mormor. A strong reminder that mistakes are truly a team sport in this league. What’s interesting though is how spread out this category is. It’s not just defenders or goalkeepers getting caught out. It’s literally everywhere. Midfielders losing focus, defenders overthinking, attackers pressing a bit too hard and suddenly everyone is involved. Then you get to the most peaceful part of the chart: the zero mistake zone. Special shout out if you made it at random. Alex Peña, Arsene Cardinet, Baptiste Azzola, and Barry McGlynn all sit comfortably on 0, meaning they have managed to avoid directly gifting goals to the opposition so far. Which in this league is basically the equivalent of being faultless. Although even that doesn’t always tell the full story. Some players don’t even need to make mistakes to cause problems. They’re just difficult to deal with in general to the point where their own teammates sometimes look like they’re improvising around them. In a way, this stat doesn’t just show errors. It shows pressure. Who’s under it, who’s causing it, and who occasionally forgets what team they’re on for a split second. Week 18 Mistakes Leading to Goals At the top of the chart, nothing really changes. Jay Pea is still leading with 2 mistakes leading to goals, which is starting to feel less like bad luck and more like a weekly tradition at this point. Behind him, things get slightly more crowded but also slightly more consistent. S Sei, Josh Harper, Joe Mormor and Eric Duic all sit on 1 mistake each. A group that basically rotates depending on who has the worst possible moment of the week. The interesting shift this week is not at the top, but in how clean the rest of the league has become. Alex Peña holds his zero mistake record and is joined by new name Alexandre Canal, who enters the chart immediately with a calm and mistake-free debut. Arsene Cardinet stays firmly in the no error zone, doing their job without contributing to anyone else’s highlight (or lowlight) reel. Bruce McAllister also appears in the rankings for the first time, rounding out the bottom of the list without any recorded mistakes. Compared to week 17, the biggest takeaway is actually stability. The same names are still showing up at the top for all the wrong reasons. After all the talk about defenders and mistakes Dennis also took a look at something a bit more constructive. Chances created. The stat that usually decides who’s actually doing the work before the highlight reels kick in, also part of the unsung hero's. This one is a bit more straightforward. Or at least it should be. Week 17 Chances Created Week 17 is led by Alex Peña with 11 chances created, setting the early standard for the league. Behind him, Jack Pow, Walter Blanco, and Sadie Black are all closely together, showing a tight group of players consistently involved in attacking build-up. Nick Kasak and Joe Mormor follow just behind, while Geronimo Datbasted appears further down, contributing from deeper positions rather than dominating the final ball. Overall it is fairly balanced. A few clear top creators, but no real runaway player yet. Week 18 Chances Created Week 18 shows the first signs of separation. Alex Peña increases his lead to 13 and continues to look like the main creative engine of the league. Sadie Black also makes a strong jump into second place with 12, closing the gap. Walter Blanco stays consistent in third, while Jack Pow drops slightly but remains firmly in the top group. The more interesting movement happens just below that. Owen Bryant moves up, Barry McGlynn enters the rankings, and names like Christopher Bergmann and Bruce McAllister appear for the first time, immediately adding depth to the creative chart. What stands out across both weeks is that creativity is starting to consolidate. A few players are clearly taking control, while the rest are rotating behind them trying to keep up. After chances created, Dennis moved on to something "experimental" but somehow surprisingly accurate: predicted assists. A combined stat built from multiple underlying factors that supposedly estimates who should be getting assists. And weirdly enough, it does tend to match reality more often than you’d expect. (I compared the predictions to previous season outcomes) Still, it sounds like something that could be wrong at any moment. Week 17 Predicted Assists Week 17 starts with a shared lead between Alex Peña and Arsene Cardinet, both sitting at 14. At this point, they’re basically running the creative economy of the league, whether people realize it or not. 14 assists would also set a new draft league record. Behind them Nick Kasak sits comfortably in third with 8, while a cluster of players including Gold Ship, Roberto Chávez, and Jack Pow are all grouped at 6. This section can change any week depending on the passing performance of the players. Joe Mormor, Geronimo Datbasted, Josh Harper and Walter Blanco round out the lower half, still involved but less consistently in the final product. Week 18 Predicted Assists Week 18 brings a slight change at the top. Alex Peña remains in first, although his score drops slightly to 12. Arsene Cardinet also drops to 8 but holds onto second place, now sharing the same number as Nick Kasak, who stays steady in third. Jack Pow and Joe Mormor remain consistent just behind them, continuing their involvement in build-up play without major jumps or drops. Further down, Tim Quackareedoo makes his first appearance in the rankings, immediately landing in sixth place, which is either impressive or mildly suspicious depending on how you interpret debut entries this late into the dataset. Gold Ship, Joshua Homme III Esquire Limited, Roberto Chávez, and Owen Bryant fill out the lower positions, all sitting in a tight cluster where small changes make a big difference week to week. Now to the part Dennis cares about the most; striker impact. This is the combined metric that also includes wingers for now, meaning it’s not just pure strikers. (I intend to fix this sometime, maybe) The score is built from a all aspects of attacking data. Goals, assists, xG, xA, shots, shots on target, chances created, key passes, header percentage, key headers, dribbles, xG overperformance, shot accuracy percentage, and appearances. It tries to capture everything an attacking player does or gets involved with. Week 17 Striker Impact Week 17 is led by Nacho Kusora, who sets the early benchmark with a strong 9.30 impact score. Efficient, and already starting to separate himself from the rest of the pack. Nick Kasak sits in second with 7.06, while Dennis follows closely in third with 6.93. At this stage the gap between second and third is small enough that one good game could change the entire order. Below the top 3 things drop off quickly. Chris Walker VI is already in negative territory, along with Kairo Vox, Blaise N’Kufo, and Jake Ronaldo, who all sit well below zero. Which for attacking players is not exactly where you want to be on a performance chart. Week 18 Striker Impact Week 18 changes the picture slightly, but not at the very top. Nacho Kusora jumps significantly to 12.97 (drug test in order?), pulling further ahead and starting to look like the clear reference point for striker output in the league. He is not just leading, he is becoming a statistical runaway. Nick Kasak holds steady in second with 6.85, showing consistency even if he is not keeping pace with the leader’s jump. Dennis remains in third though his score drops to 4.58(:(). Still in the upper tier but nowhere near the top spot. The interesting movement comes behind him. Jack Pow enters the rankings in fourth with a positive impact score, suggesting a strong week and a sharp rise in involvement in attacking phases. Barry McGlynn also appears in fifth, just barely above zero, which in this system counts as progress. Further down, Jake Ronaldo improves slightly but remains in negative territory, while Chris Walker VI drops further. Dante Von Wolfe, the man who just cannot seem to score, joins the table in eighth, immediately landing in negative impact alongside Kairo Vox and Blaise N’Kufo, who continue to struggle to convert involvement into actual positive output. Next up is one of the more interesting attacking metrics: xG overperformance. Tthis shows who is scoring more goals than they 'should'. And as always, reality tends to be a bit more chaotic than the numbers suggest. Week 17 xG Overperformance Week 17 sees Dennis at the top of the chart with 3.23, which immediately confirms what the eye test has been saying. He is finishing chances more chances than expected, even when the positions he finds himself in are not always the easiest. Behind him, Ewan Purves sits in second with 2.91, closely followed by Nacho Kusora at 2.87. The top three are very tightly packed, suggesting a small group of players are currently outperforming expectation in similar fashion. Further down, Che Youz, Joe Mormor, and Tim Quackareedoo form a middle cluster of positive overperformance, while Bruce McAllister, Mullet Man, Baptiste Azzola and Walter Blanco complete the lower end of the top ten with smaller but still positive margins. Week 18 xG Overperformance Week 18 brings big changes. Nacho Kusora takes the top spot with a 5.66, which is a significant increase to week 17 and shows a very efficient infront of goal. He is consistently exceeding expectations by a large margin. Dennis drops to second with 3.17, still in the top group of finishers. His numbers remain stable, which is usually a good sign in a stat like this. Ewan Purves holds steady in third, continuing his consistent overperformance across both weeks. Joe Mormor also moves up slightly, while Bruce McAllister improves into fifth with a noticeable jump in output efficiency. Jake Ronaldo appears in the rankings for the first time in sixth, suggesting a improvement in finishing form. Further down, Che Youz and Tim Quackareedoo remain in the mix, while STAR SCREAM and Joshua Homme III Esquire Limited enter the chart at the bottom end of the top ten with modest but positive overperformance. Across both weeks, one pattern stands out clearly. Dennis remains one of the most efficient finishers in the league consistently outperforming expected output, even as others begin to surge around him. And for Nacho Kusora, performance enhancing drugs are expected to be in play. The difference now is that he is no longer at the top. And in a league like this, that usually means the race is only just getting started. To round off the attacking metrics, Dennis also looked at predicted goals. A model based estimate of how many goals each player is expected to end up with based on their current output, finishing trends, and underlying involvement. Basically, where the numbers think things are heading if nothing dramatically changes. Week 17 Predicted Goals Week 17 shows a very tight race at the top between Mullet Man (goat) and Dennis, both sitting on 20 predicted goals. They are effectively projected to finish the season as the main goal threats in the league. But it sadly won't break the record of 22. Just behind them, Nacho Kusora sits on 17, still very much in striking distance and clearly part of the same top tier. Below that, Joe Mormor and Che Youz form the next group of consistent contributors, while Arsene Cardinet and Bruce McAllister sit slightly further back but still within a strong attacking range. The lower end of the top ten includes Chris Walker VI, Barry McGlynn, and Ozzy Boudreaux, all projected to contribute but not necessarily lead. Week 18 Predicted Goals Week 18 brings a a big change to the top. Nacho Kusora moves into first with 19 predicted goals, taking over the lead and reinforcing his position as the most dangerous attacking projection in the league at this point. Dennis drops to second with 17, still in the elite bracket and still in the race, but now behind the new leader who seemed to have a fantastic week 18. Joe Mormor holds steady in third, continuing his consistent output projection, while Bruce McAllister climbs into fourth with a noticeable improvement. Mullet Man drops slightly to fifth, suggesting a small dip in projection despite a strong starting position in week 17. Further down, Owen Goal enters the rankings in seventh with a solid debut projection, immediately placing himself in the upper attacking group. Arsene Cardinet, Ozzy Boudreaux, and S Sei complete the lower end of the top ten, all still projected to contribute but with less upward movement compared to the leaders. Outro As the season moves past the halfway mark the numbers are starting to settle into something that could setup the "race for number 1" in their respective statistic. It is not perfect, not fully predictable, but clear enough that patterns are beginning to show. Certain names keep appearing at the top, others are stuck fighting for consistency, and a few are just trying to survive week to week. For Dennis, it’s become less about just scoring and more about thinking of the future, after the academy and the draft. Even where the chances come from, who creates them, who stops them, and who occasionally turns a simple situation into a highlight for the wrong reasons are increasing in interest. There is still a long way to go and matches to be played. Gaps in the statistics are starting to matter more after every new game played. But there is still room for big changes. A good run of games can change everything and anything. For now though, the data is what it is. Some players are pulling away, some are holding steady, and some are probably hoping the next set of graphs doesn’t exist. And if you read this all you're actually insane. RE: Dennis's and the academy's statistical performance - nckkss - 2026-05-02 I like all the bits where I'm near the top /s No really, this is amazing. RE: Dennis's and the academy's statistical performance - Jack_Pow - 2026-05-02 Great work mate! Top quality content. RE: Dennis's and the academy's statistical performance - Definia - 2026-05-02 Fantastic write up Jeanious. Brilliant stuff