Birmingham City: An in-depth look at Blues’ 21/22 player statistics - Surprising player of the season revealed

We’re on the home stretch towards the end of the 21/22 Championship campaign and it’s been one that has posed all too many familiarities for fans of Birmingham City.

Whilst the good news is that side appear to be well clear of a relegation fight this year, it’s still been a season of lower mid-table mediocrity.

But Lee Bowyer has been working well within his means and until those shackles are taken off, it’s going to be more of the same.

With that said, working with what he’s got he’s done a pretty stellar job this season and you’d have to argue he’s got a near 100% conversion record when it comes to his own personal signings.

Lyle Taylor, Onel Hernandez, Juninho Bacuna and Ryan Woods just to name a few have been huge standouts for this team and once the overhaul that Bowyer has demanded is able to be completed - there is optimism for a bright future under his leadership.

It isn’t just the new crop either, some of the longer-term names have showed real improvement since the former Charlton Athletic boss was appointed.

Scott Hogan’s career had a bit of a revitalisation and players like Gary Gardner, especially in more recent times, have become real key players.

With the help of WhoScored.com, we’ve taken a deep dive into the statistics from the season so far to see who, on paper, is leading the ranks of this Blues team.

‘Player ratings are based on each event recorded in the game calculated live automatically using our own algorithms, which comprise of over 200 raw statistics. All events are valued based on a researched perception of the effect on the outcome of the match. Positive events are valued against negative events.’ - WhoScored.com

Player of the season

Based on every player that has made 10 or more appearances so far this season, who would be, off the top of your head - your player of the season? Tahith Chong? Onel Hernandez? Maybe even Matija Sarkic?

Well if we’re basing it on statistics alone, you’d be wrong, wrong and wrong.

The crown would go to Marc Roberts.

Roberts has boasted an average WhoScored rating of 6.94 across his 32 games, the most out of any of the other current BCFC players.

There are three players who maybe even more surprisingly sit in front of him but were excluded for the fact they don’t hit the appearance target and or no longer play for the Blues.

Incredibly, young Nico Gordon is the top rated man across the entire squad with 7.05 to his name though he has of course only made four appearances. Behind him come Lyle Taylor (7.02) with eight appearances and Riley McGree (7.02) who departed for Middlesbrough in January.

The lowest rated player was also a former Blues man, Chuks Aneke (6.33) who rejoined Charlton in the winter window.

Birmingham City characteristics

This was one of those if you don’t laugh you’ll cry bits and a section I didn’t even know existed.

WhoScored have outlined the characteristics of each team in the league with help from Opta and Blues’ strengths and weaknesses almost seem so obvious but when it’s written out and backed up by statistics it really enforces the point.

It states that Birmingham’s biggest strength, the one they’ve outlined as something they are ‘very strong’ at is ‘stealing the ball from the opposition.’

Hernandez is very good at this. In fact, he’s nicked the ball in the final third more than anyone in the squad despite only being part of the team since January. The Cuban has done so 20 times whilst Jeremie Bela and Scott Hogan are just behind with 17 and 15 respectively.

Two other strengths for Blues include ‘aerial duals,’ which unsurprisingly Lukas Jutkiewicz dominates with an average of 5.3 won per 90 and ‘creating scoring chances.’

Which leads beautifully on to the weaknesses of which Birmingham’s biggest is ‘finishing scoring chances’ - classic.

They are listed as ‘weak’ at that along with, ‘keeping possession of the ball’ - which is kind of a big thing in football, ‘defending counter-attacks’ and ‘avoiding fouling in dangerous areas.’

And the thing they are categorically the worst at? ‘Defending against skillful players.’

Who defines who is a skillful player and how good or bad you are at it I have no idea but apparently Bowyer’s men cannot do it very well at all.

Bonus stats

Because why not?

Gardner is the most aggressive player in the squad having picked up eight yellow cards and two red cards across the course of the season so far.

Bela has the most assists to his name which is quite worrying at just four with Jordan Graham and Troy Deeney both behind with three each.

Roberts and Kristian Pedersen have both made the most appearances so far this season with 32.

Bowyer has deployed the formation of 3-5-2 and 3-4-1-2 more than any other (10 times) whilst he had also experimented with 3-4-3 a handful of times (5). Only nine times have Blues started with four at the back.

And finally, Bela has been awarded more man-of-the-match awards (3) than any other player so far this campaign.

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