Football News: Aaron Wan-Bissaka Performance for England under 21s last night

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I've wanted to write for a while on this subject and last nights Under 21 game has given me the ideal opportunity without bias being involved. I want to discuss how key events in football matches often dictate viewers opinions on how a player has played in a specific match.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka played for England's under 21s last night, he was unfortunate enough to score an own goal. The narrative is he had a poor game and struggled. Some even said his passing was poor and he repeatedly gave away the ball.

Now is that narrative a true reflection on the game or did the fact he scored an own goal that lost England the game affect how people perceived his performance overall?

So let's look at how he did defensively.

Well he won two aerial duels of the two he challenged for, which ranks him joint second amongst England players last night with only Solanke completing more, and with a 100% success rate.

He won all six of his attempted tackles (again 100%) . Which ranked him as first amongst England players for tackles won by some margin Dasilva and Foden were joint second place with three or half as many tackles won.

He made two clearances which ranked him 4th amongst England players last night, he also made one block which ranks him second amongst England players.

He managed his defensive work without giving away a single foul.

So actually a pretty good defensive performance bar the unlucky own goal. He was as good or better than nearly every other England player on the pitch in most areas of defending. Hardly a poor performance.

So what about his passing which has been heavily criticised. Well of the 14 England players to have played last night he ranks 5th for most number of passes attempted and 4th for the most number of passes completed. He finished the game with a very respectable 87.5% pass success rate. Meaning only 6 of his attempted passes didn't make it to their intended target. England's man of the match and a highly thought of passer of the ball Phil Foden, by comparison had 4 of his passes fail to reach their target while attempting 14 fewer passes over all.

Two of the three long balls AWB attempted made it to their intended target, he also had the joint second most touches of any England player which shows how involved he was and how he didn't go missing or hiding during the game. He was also third for number dribbles from England players, while being dispossessed twice and having one unstable touch resulting in a loss of possession.

Neither statistic was he the worst offender with Sessegnon and Solanke being dispossessed more and Foden, Maddison and Dasilva being dispossessed as often. While Gray had more unstable touches, while Sessegnon, Solanke, Maddison, Dasilva and Mount all had as many unstable touches.

So all in all it would be fair to say he had a solid game where he was arguably England's best defender for most of the match, against one of the best attacking teams in the Under 21's World cup (France) . He was unfortunate to score a late own goal which meant England lost the match.

As such you can't say he had a great game, but he was solid and had England won and he hadn't scored the late own goal many would be saying about what a great performance he had. But the result and a key event going against him and suddenly a decent performance is ripped apart and the narrative becomes how poor he played.

Written by Shappy June 19 2019 16:44:23