The summer transfer season is really starting to gear up and one of the first names that has been linked with Arsenal is Bournemouth’s Ryan Fraser.
93 – Key passes, 3rd in the Premier League, would rank 1st on Arsenal (Mesut Özil led Arsenal with 45).
2.6 – Key Passes per 90 minutes, 98th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
51 – Shots, tied for 52nd in the Premier League, would rank 3rd on Arsenal (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang led Arsenal with 94).
1.45 – Open play shots per 90 minutes, 67th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
50 – Open play key passes, 9th in the Premier League, would rank 1st on Arsenal (Alex Iwobi led Arsenal with 38).
1.9 – Open play key passes per 90 minutes, 96th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
14 – Assists, 2nd in the Premier League, would rank 1st on Arsenal (Alexandre Lacazette led Arsenal with 8).
18.6 – xG Assisted, 1st in the Premier League, would rank 1st on Arsenal (Alex Iwobi led Arsenal with 6.5).
0.51 – xG Assisted per 90 minutes, 98th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
16.1 – Offensive Value Added (A statistic scaled to goals that takes all offensive actions into account to determine total value added to a team), 9th in the Premier League, would rank 2nd on Arsenal (Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang led Arsenal with 16.7).
77 – Accurate Crosses, 2nd in the Premier League, would rank 1st on Arsenal (Granit Xhaka led Arsenal with 31).
2.2 – Accurate Crosses per 90 minutes, 95th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
28.4% – Cross percentage, 77th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
128 – Successful passes into the box, 3rd in the Premier League, would rank 1st on Arsenal (Alex Iwobi led Arsenal with 89).
76.9% – Pass completion percentage, 48th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
24 – Successful dribbles, tied for 82nd in the Premier League, would rank 4th on Arsenal (Alex Iwobi led Arsenal with 46).
0.77 – Successful dribbles per 90 minutes, 33rd percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
0.5 – Tackles per 90 minutes, 4th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
0.7 – Interceptions per 90 minutes, 12th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
4.2 – Total Defensive Actions per 90 minutes, 11th percentile among all wide forwards going back to the 2011-12 season for Big 5 European Leagues.
Fraser is an interesting type of player. He has a set of skills that he is really good at but doesn’t have a very well rounded skill set.
He is a very good crosser of the ball, ranking very highly at the volume of crosses completed while also completing crosses at a good rate (his 28% completion rate this season would put him in the 77th percentile for wide forwards). This ability to complete crosses combined with Callum Wilson to aim at led to a number of key passes and assists this season.
Moving beyond his ability to create with his elite crossing his skills aren’t nearly as good. He is slightly above average at getting shots from open play and takes shots from pretty good locations. He doesn’t dribble often, especially for a player that has played primarily from the wide positions that is a very valuable skill to have.
His overall passing numbers aren’t great, but a lot of that is down to his pass attempt mix where he tries a lot of crosses and passes that typically don’t come off. Given the type of passes that he attempts an average player would complete about 74% of them so he is slightly above average even with numbers that aren’t great looking.
On defense, well at Bournemouth he looks to be one of the players that isn’t asked to contribute much. Most teams can get buy with one or two of these types of players but I am not sure that Fraser would be able to do that at Arsenal.
Arsenal are working to roll out a new way of doing business in the transfer market so I will trust the new process to see how things play out before I make any final decisions on a signing let alone a player who is rumored.
Good Article. Rules him out for me. We cannot afford to have any more defensive passengers in our squad.
Difficult to say how much of that is down to instruction. No suggestion that he couldn’t buy in to a pressing game at Arsenal is there? I’m more interesting in his output being so much higher than any of our existing wide options and we all talk about xG but that holds up too…
As winger/wider midfielder I can’t imagine he’s being asked not to make any tackles or contribute defensively… He’s not capable or willing.
Yeah, I really hope this goes the way of those rumours linking us to hiring Eddie Howe a few years ago. No thanks.
This piece made me realize how valuable Iwobi is
I think Iwobi could do a lot of this (maybe not quite the same assist numbers) if he had 3000 minutes.
Really Scott? I haven’t seen anything from Iwobi showing he can spit out these offensive numbers. It’s possible that Ryan Fraser might actually improve on those offensive numbers sloting into a better quality team. We are more offensive than Bournemouth are able to be and he will get more opportunities for crosses. I think Lacazette, Ozil and Aubameyang are better quality than Wilson, King and Brooks as well. (Though I’d take Brooks in a heartbeat)
I dunno about valuable. Iwobi is a solid enough squad player. I’m not sure he’ll be anything more. To play in Iwobi’s position for a club as big as Arsenal, a player needs to be able to make something happen out of nothing.
All the energy and step overs are good but I struggle to remember a time in his two seasons in the first team that the guy did anything which lit the game up or changed proceedings.
He has the odd game where he is amazing and the rest of the time he has no end product
Hopefully he will get better
I think amazing is a bit strong. As I said, struggling to remember a time he had us all jumping to our feet in anything other than frustration.
Sorry, it’s harsh because he’s a good guy. But he’s had enough time to progress. It’s just not really happening.
Maybe a bit strong but he was good at times. Just not often enough.
I too am starting to wonder if he will make it here.
Btw, just to underline how valuable Iwobi is: this year he’s put up better numbers in every category than Fraser was putting up at the same age (Fraser is 2 yrs older).
Iwobi’s best position probably isn’t wide forward. Even if it is, we need better play from those position, right and left.
Relatedly, I would like to see Arsenal play players in their best positions. If we already have better players there, then sell for value and buy a player who fits. I like Iwobi. He is a valuable squad player. But square pegs in round holes is not a recipe for winning the league.
Struggling to remember the games where Ozil now 3x the eagles and expectations did more! Iwobi is too easy a scape goat. He is progressing and will get better. At least he tries to influence the game unlike our other overpriced promadonnas
Had our backline not been so porous, would we be as critical of Iwobi and everyone else? Imagine if we had someone like Hummels instead of Mustafi. Our entire discussion here would be different. Just one good CB and we could have been 10 points better. We have a solid team, but defensively we are shite. The rest of the team is not entirely bad and getting better under a pretty damn good manager. Backline aside, my biggest gripe is Xhaka hasn’t been as good as I expected. Big cannon of a shot, but he’s waiting until he turns 40… Read more »
That, and how weak we are in the wide players department.
I think there is a lot of similarities Fraser vs Iwobi OP Shots: 1.5 vs 1.5 OP Key Passes: 1.9 vs 1.8 xA: 0.5 vs 0.3 P Box: 3.6 vs 4.1 Drib: 0.7 vs 2.1 Tackles: 0.5 vs 1.3 Inter: 0.7 vs 0.5 Cross: 2.2 vs 2.0 Pass%: 76.9 vs 77.8 Iwobi is a good player, I think that he fills a great role on Arsenal as one of the first player as guy who plays like 60% of starter minutes. That is really the role I’d imagine Fraser to have as well. Iwobi even has the academy graduate and… Read more »
Both are pretty average and not arsenal quality
And he’s a bit underappreciated. He should be scoring and creating more anyways. Howdy bro
And how far we have fallen
Emery was publicly screaming for wingers in January….
His distance covered per 90 and sprint stats would be interesting to see?
He can teach Kolasinac how to cross perhaps!
How important is it to be a well rounded player? Ideally you would prefer one of course, but should defensive capabilities really be an attribute that is considered seriously for a wide forward? Surely being good at what he specialises in is what should be favoured when analysing a player
NB. This is not me advocating the signing of Fraser, but he is one player that is intriguing…
It worked for Beckham.
In the modern game its becoming very important, as pressing all over the pitch is necessary if you want to win titles. Also pretty handy to know how help out further back..
Seen Bournemouth a lot. Fraser has always been underrated but he’s made the breakthrough now. He is a clear upgrade on Iwobi and Mkitaryan. While we are at it, get Ake to replace Mustafi and Brooks to replace any of the midfield drones.
I genuinely mean no offense, but I hate it when people are like, let’s draft half the squad of a mediocre team who we finished well above. We really oughta aim higher than Bournemouth.
Dunno Liverpool have done quite well out of stealing half the squad of teams below them
It’s a matter of stealing the right players
Either Fraser is better than Iwobi or he isn’t. Doesn’t matter who he plays for. And I think we need a dose of realism. It’s not beyond all possibility that when the window opens Tottenham will be European Champions and we will be in the Europa League again.
Wash your mouth out
Sorry was a bit sicky there in my mouth. But it could happen. We should all be prepared.
It could. If it does, we all just have to pretend it didn’t happen. Queue “we only care what’s happening with Arsenal and Arsenal alone” song.
There are some real quality players in some of these teams. Wilson is a capped English player and Brooks is as well for Wales. Judging by our relative lack of international players I don’t think we can be all high and mighty.
Funny thing, we may not have a budget to afford to take a gamble on them, based on our targets.
Just because plays for a mid table side it doesn’t mean he’s not good enough to play for Arsenal. If he can make 15 assists for Bournemouth how many would he make with our 2 quality strikers. Also he’s a great crosser of the ball which is something we lack. I’m surprised he hasn’t been signed
He takes a lot of set pieces, which certainly isn’t a bad thing, but regarding stats around assists it’s always something to take into consideration.
We certainly need at least one real quality wide player, I don’t know what this guys off the ball work rate is like? But ideally we’ll sign a wide forward who is absolutely relentless in his work ethic, and will also enjoy the physical side of it, the last thing we need is another lightweight passenger who doesn’t fancy it
Yeah obviously, I don’t object to any instance of a player. Maybe Fraser is good enough, maybe Ake is. It’s when you get to the point of grabbing several players that it feels a bit silly.
I’m not really suggesting we buy AFC Bournemouth wholesale but we have to look at what players are performing at the smaller Premier League clubs, as our pulling power is, frankly, on the wane.
He doesn’t sound like an Arsenal-esque player
A bit of Scottish grit may be no bad thing
Why? Fast winger who is great at crossing the ball and has 15 assists
He sounds a bit like Freddie really. Not the best technique, but created a lot of scoring opportunities.
It’s also anyone’s guess if he can repeat what he did last season in terms of goals and assists. The season before he had like 3 assists.
3 assists – like a normal season for Iwobi then ?
Please, can you do more of these throughout the winter transfer period? It was a really interesting read.
Blogs asked me to do as many as I can and especially after we make signings so expect more as the summer goes on.
Yeeeeeeeehaaa!
So we are going to get around 4 more of these 😀
I agree…well done Scott!
He isn’t one of the best student in the classroom. Raul said he feels strong when he talks to top players to come to Arsenal. We’ll see who he will bring.
Being the main outlet for bournemouth he would naturally be asked to stay upfield and be the first person the team look for in transition. His crossing would help alot against low defensive block. But for me he is someone who believe he can make a difference and knows his skillset to achieve that and doesn’t try wonder moves all the time. He’s had to be efficient at Bournemouth and that will help us. Not sure about his combination play, but perhaps we will be playing more varied styles of football, alot similar to this season as we try to… Read more »
Crosses well, but doesn’t score much, dribble, pass, or defend?
Must be a plan B, or C, or a whole lot of poops.
Does he have Armenian great grandparents?
Hahaha
I’m not all that impressed with this stat. Lot’s of similarities between him and Iwobi. I will like a much better all round equipped winger than this statistic moving forward.
Between him and Lucas Perez
There must be better, surely.
Really suprised. The numbers sugest that Iwobi is better than we give him credit for.
Alexis sanchez is considered a flop at United. Why is özil at 350.000 a week not considered a flop stats wise. 4 assists after the contract was signed. Is it not possible that he can be over the top as well? But I guess he is better than Fraser according to the experts. Probably just the coach and the team that is wrong.
I think we need a goalscoring winger, like Alexis or Lukas Podolski, for Mesut to get a much higher number of assists.
Really interesting stuff. Beyond the stats, he has looked class over the last couple of seasons. Would be a really exciting purchase and a bit of natural width sorely lacking recently.
is it fair to say fraser is a ‘forward’? i would probably count him as a midfielder, who goes forward a lot, but i wouldn’t say he was given a striker role. it must have to do with the fact bournemouth goes for the counter a lot, and they’re quite average in their passing game, so no surprise he isn’t shining with his passes either. then again, i haven’t watched bournemouth a lot. since you’re going to analize players in he upcoming weeks, i think it would be interesting -and fair- to contextualize the players with their teams. per example,… Read more »
I fancy Zaha would go well with Auba and Laca but we probably can’t afford him
That front line would terrorise defences
We don’t need an overrated inconsistent diving cheat.
10 goals and 10 assists, and he is a real handful
I’d love Zaha too! Sat there above the Palace fans, when Mustafi let him score.. he came over to celebrate, obviously for a split second I wanted to throttle him, then I imagined him in Arsenal colours.. he’s a beast.. so strong.. doesn’t take any crap (& those scary eyes – Guendouzi knows all about them ?) unfortunately I can’t see it happening… but I’ll carry on dreaming ?
Imagine him together with Auba and Laca. It would be total carnage.
I can’t see it happening either unfortunately, we have other priorities. Maybe if we win the Europa League.
That would be amazing!! You never know.. I mean I never thought we’d get Auba!
Yes, winning on Wednesday will help, for sure!
Arsenal is also “lnked to” Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti, according to Sky sport. Umtiti is a fantastic defender. I’ve seen him totally pacify Cristian Ronaldo, without hard tackles or shirt pulling, only through speed, positioning and quick thinking.
Good player when he’s on the pitch, his injury history coupled with his cost gives me pause.
Since numbers are the topic, he had one assist against Spurs in the next to last weekend as his lone point against a top 6 side.
Is that entirely down to him? Not necessarily, but that’s a 12 game sample and that’s not insignificant that he seemed to feast on the bottom of the table.
I think that is more to do with how defensive Bournemouth have to play against the top 6 teams. Besides, where we struggled at times this year was against teams outside the top 6.
We could have our very own barrel with legs… Joking aside, I like Fraser as an offensive player, and could see Emery getting a fair bit out of him in regards to workrate. He’s the right age profile we need to be recruiting from, has the right amount of top level experience, and could be ready for the step up to a larger side. The issues surrounding him are his defensive workrate, his shooting, and his movement with the ball, all of which could be down to instruction from his current manager. Biggest stumbling block, however, is the price Bournemouth… Read more »
I’ll bet they will let him go for £20 million. He’s leaving for free if they don’t move him and they can’t take that kind of hit. £20 mil for that many assists? Yes please!
He’s not a bad player at all and could be a decent squad member but the price being quoted is ridiculous. 30 mil would be a little more acceptable if he had 3yrs on his contract but 1 year left? 15mil tops
He’s an upgrade on Iwobi but not a good cover defensively for Kolasinac judging by his low defensive involements. I really like him. He’s PL tested and will create. But we will be weak defensively with Kolasinac behind him. Sign a more defensive left back and I’m all in on this guy. Relatively cheap and will work his socks off.
so half the footballer that Iwobi is, but with twice the end product…about right?
I like Fraser a lot. His dribbling numbers are very troubling though. If we were a super club who could afford to have a player like Fraser playing 30-40% of starter minutes, this would be a fine signing. But we’re still trying to make a massive leap in quality and he doesn’t provide the one-on-one skills that make a difference against the best teams.
I would be far more interested in seeing Nelson, Amaechi and Saka get those minutes. If you’re going to spend 30m on a wide forward, go after someone like Chukwueze.
Yep. I’ve watched Chukwueze so many times in Spanish league, he’s a demon and ticks the right numbers for Arsenal.
Nicolas Pepe anyone? Front 3 of Auba, Laca and that dude will absolutely tear teams to shreds. Any chance of this hapening?
Not so sure we can afford his price tag and still get other important areas that need attention.
“He has a set of skills that he is really good at but doesn’t have a very well rounded skill set.”. This is a big call as there is no context provided. What stats do similar players have?
Further, given a restricted budget, we are going to have to take players who are likely to require further development. Manchester City buy/have bought/will continue to buy all the fully rounded players. This is because they have no concept of a budget. We are not in that place.
Surely his defensive contributions are in large part due to the fact he was AFCB’s chief point of reference for a goal? Very hard to rate so highly across the board if he’s been told to stay up and get the ball to Wilson – which was his main job and he excelled at it. Playing with Laca/Auba equates to more goals for Arsenal, it’s obvious. The question is not “can Fraser defend?” rather than “can Arsenal defend?”. You’ll know better than me. People levelled the same at Robertson before Liverpool, and those accusations look ridiculous now in the face… Read more »
These are good points.
I’d be very interested to see what Arsenal can do with a proper winger, which we haven’t had for some time. Currently we usually have a front three with Laca/Auba switching between centre forward and one side, and the other side occupied by Iwobi or Mkhitaryan. Maybe Emeri like Wenger enjoys having someone who is essentially a midfielder in one of the winger positions so they can cut in and add to stability in the middle, but I think often it just leaves one side of the pitch empty of any attacking threat, or when it is there then it’s… Read more »
For 15-20m a BARGAIN. The statistician’s sleight of hand is to lend an air of objectivity to very subjective opinions. It’s a StatsDNA-mindset that stuck us with Xhaka and Mustakey. That’s what going on here. No offence, any statistician would own that, that’s the “game”. But I think there are a lot of gullible people out there easily taken in by this style of argumentation. Back to the most important numbers: 2nd (by 1) in the league in assists, led league in chances created by a mile, excellent crosser, incredible work rate and league-leading end-product. Intangibles: PL experience, toughness able… Read more »
Can you do a comparison with Bernado Silva’s stats at Monanco?