Player Usage In The 2014/15 Premier League

Let's dive straight into the chart:

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The interactive chart and the colours for each players should be pretty easy to grasp. ToP% is the percentage of league minutes each played actually played (Time On Pitch %).

What Does This Chart Tell Us?

City had a nice steady core of players who started more than 20 games and made fewer than 10 sub appearances and these guys feature on the bottom right quadrant of the chart. Thing is, Pellegrini couldn't, or didn't, lean on any of his players too heavily - only 4 players played over 70% of the available minutes. For comparisons sake, Chelsea had 4 players who played over 90% of the minutes available.

Why couldn't Man City get more usage out of some of their key players? The Agueros and Kompanys yet again suffered through injury issues; Toure missed time due to the African Cup of Nations, and guys like Fernandinho, Nasri and Dzeko couldn't find form consistent enough to be trusted heavily by Pellegrini.

Rotation is increasingly necessary in the modern game with the increased intensity of games, the sheer number of fixtures and lack of recovery time. So taking all these things into account it is hardly surprising to see so few Man City players feature in more than 70% of available minutes, yet it still feels like City may well have benefited from a little more continuity in team selection. Injury, lack of form and, in some cases, erosion of previous trust scuppered any plans fro calm continuity in team selection.

It is benefitial for us to take a quick glance at some of the guys who didn't feature too heavily:

• Nasri played fewer than 50% of the available minutes and his future looks uncertain.
• Kolarov again played fewer than 50% of available minutes but was used heavily during the tail end of the season, which has be more of a good sign than a bad one (unless City are craftily putting him in situations to succeed, have him play well thus making him a more attractive target over the summer)
• Bony was a disappointment following his move from Swansea. Bony is a fine player with excellent underlying numbers but the first few months of his City career featured injuries and a manager who moved away from his favoured 2 striker formation which significantly clipped any playing time Bony may well have otherwise featured in.
• Guys that played less than 30% of the available minutes: Dzeko, Sagna, and Jovetic. I'd be somewhat stunned if any of these guys were still with the first team next season. I'm not sure if any of the three can be sold, or if they will be loaned or fired into the fucking sun. Whichever method you pick, I don't think they'll be around next year and few tears should be shed for the departing trio.

How on earth did Man City manage to score all those league goals last season with a forward line than was either unfit, half-fit, or half-wit? Incredible stuff, really.

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