Marc Albrighton made 21 crosses against Cardiff last night – the second-highest total of any player this season.
And yet just six were accurate!
But perhaps the most intriguing statistic is that the Aston Villa winger made almost the same number of crosses in just 34 minutes at the weekend against West Ham. David Moyes – are you watching?
| Player | Match | Matchday | Team | Pos | Total Cross | Accurate Cross | Mins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlie Adam | Stoke vs Liverpool | 21 | Stoke | MF | 22 | 5 | 90 |
| Marc Albrighton | Cardiff vs Aston Villa | 26 | Aston Villa | MF | 21 | 6 | 90 |
| Marc Albrighton | Aston Villa vs West Ham | 25 | Aston Villa | MF | 20 | 6 | 34 |
| Robert Snodgrass | Norwich vs Aston Villa | 05 | Norwich | MF | 20 | 4 | 90 |
| Jonathan De Guzmán | Swansea vs Stoke | 11 | Swansea | MF | 19 | 7 | 71 |
As we can see, Charlie Adam holds the record for the amount of crosses made in a single game this season, displaying an even worse success rate than Albrighton. The Villa man, though, is not far behind, making 41 over his last two games, with only 12 of them proving accurate.
In both games, the 24-year-old also failed to provide an assist, begging the question of whether Paul Lambert’s tactics are actually working.
At times against Cardiff, Albrighton and co. looked too direct, simply going for a cross as soon as they could without considering other alternatives.
In fact, it was not too dissimilar to Man United’s 2-2 draw with Fulham at the weekend, when they made 81 crosses against Rene Meulensteen’s men. Individually, however, Albrighton made more against both Cardiff and West Ham than any United player has in any match this term.
As far as impressions go, then, it wasn’t too bad.
image: © Ben Sutherland
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