Arek Milik By Far Most Efficient

Arek Milik By Far Most Efficient

11/04/2014

Because of his two goals in last week's match for the Dutch cup against Urk, Arek Milik has become by far the most efficient goalscorer in Ajax' history (according to our list with players who scored at least 10 goals in official matches for Ajax)

Trainer Frank de Boer until now prefers Kolbeinn Sigthorsson who so far has been unable to keep his average below 180 minutes per goal, while Arek Milik until now needed less than 50 minutes on average to score a goal.

The fact that 6 of his 11 goals were scored during 1 match might make this average not representative, but even without these six Milik scored 6 times in 450 minutes, or 90 minutes per goal. Sigthorsson had his best period when he just started at Ajax in season 2011-12 en scored 5 times in 780 minutes in his first 11 matches, 156 minutes per goal.

Soccer is a very different sport compared to Baseball, where the individual statistics if pitchers and batters are a strong indication with respect to future performance, irrespective of opponents or teammembers. With soccer the opponent and team members often play a large role in how well a soccer player performs. Because of this it is understandable that in soccer, unlike in Baseball, as illustrated in the fantastic movie Moneyball, no decisions are made purely based on statistics. What is less understable is if statistical information is not used at all in the decision making process. The past seasons, with Marko Pantelic (128.3 minutes per goal), Dmitri Bulykin (92.4) and Danny Hoesen (130.2), Ajax each time parted ways unnecessarily with players that had good averages.

Filed under: Arek Milik