So I was reading up on some stats about joey barton after his disappointing showing at Swansea. People were very quick to criticise, me included, but history has proven that Barton needs a run in the squad to keep up his performances. In matches where he has played 90 minutes, he has an average score on whoscored of 7.60. That would place him as the 9th best player in the league and I think looking at most of those performances, it is clear why this is the case. In those matches, he played on average 3.6 key passes per game, placing him as the highest in the league. Given that these contributions are extremely important in the goalscoring record of Charlie Austin.
What did surprise me is that in those 5 matches, he held the ball for longer than any other player in all but 1 match, holding an average of 8.1% possession. That is quite an incredible stat which shows, in combination with the previous stats that he is absolutely key to home matches in particular, where we need to hold the ball and push forward, especially with the defensively solid but average on the ball Karl Henry playing alongside him. Also, as the commentator pointed out against Swansea, before that match, he hadn't had a single booking this season. The only issue I have seen in recent times has been a fall in pass accuracy which as many will have noticed, hasn't been as good as before. I personally believe that this is purely down to injury recovery and more matches can only help him. Personally, I think he will be key to our creative attacking at home, although perhaps playing him out wide away from home may be beneficial (his best match this season was newcastle away playing right mid).