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Player Usage In The 2014/15 Premier League

Which players started the most, who were the super subs, and can the number of minutes a player played (or didn't play) tell us anything about their future at the club?

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.
For those of you curious what last seasons Usage Chart may have looked like, here you go:


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.

Share Your Data

Sharing your data and letting others poke around, explore and use it as they want is always a really sound and noble thing to do. So here goes:

Season Name Minutes ToP% Age Starts Subs Position
14/15 Aleksandar Kolarov 1486 43.5 29 17 5 D
14/15 Bacary Sagna 740 21.6 32 8 1 D
14/15 David Silva 2661 77.8 29 32 M
14/15 Dedryck Boyata 91 2.7 24 1 1 D
14/15 Edin Dzeko 932 27.3 29 12 11 F
14/15 Eliaquim Mangala 2189 64 24 24 1 D
14/15 Fernandinho 2273 66.5 30 25 8 M
14/15 Fernando 1881 55 27 22 3 M
14/15 Frank Lampard 991 29 36 10 22 M
14/15 Gaël Clichy 2058 60.2 29 23 D
14/15 James Milner 1744 51 29 18 14 M
14/15 Jesús Navas 2248 65.7 29 23 12 M
14/15 Jose Pozo 137 4 19 1 2 F
14/15 Martín Demichelis 2559 74.8 34 28 3 D
14/15 Pablo Zabaleta 2586 75.6 30 29 D
14/15 Samir Nasri 1580 46.2 27 18 6 M
14/15 Sergio Agüero 2540 74.3 26 30 3 F
14/15 Stevan Jovetic 787 23 25 9 8 F
14/15 Vincent Kompany 2034 59.5 29 23 2 D
14/15 Wilfried Bony 297 19.4 26 18 12 F
14/15 Yaya Touré 2357 68.9 32 27 2 M
13/14 Aleksandar Kolarov 1971 57.6 28 21 9 D
13/14 Álvaro Negredo 1726 50.5 28 21 11 F
13/14 David Silva 2174 63.6 28 26 1 M
13/14 Dedryck Boyata 55 1.6 23 1 D
13/14 Edin Dzeko 1993 58.3 28 23 8 F
13/14 Fernandinho 2609 76.3 29 29 4 M
13/14 Gaël Clichy 1660 48.5 28 18 2 D
13/14 Jack Rodwell 109 3.2 23 1 4 M
13/14 James Milner 1359 39.7 28 12 19 M
13/14 Javi García 1529 44.7 27 14 15 M
13/14 Jesús Navas 1775 51.9 28 18 12 M
13/14 Joleon Lescott 784 22.9 31 8 2 D
13/14 Martín Demichelis 2430 71.1 33 27 D
13/14 Matija Nastasic 1028 30.1 21 11 2 D
13/14 Micah Richards 161 4.7 25 2 D
13/14 Pablo Zabaleta 3079 90 29 34 1 D
13/14 Samir Nasri 2499 73.1 26 29 5 M
13/14 Sergio Agüero 1539 45 25 20 3 F
13/14 Stevan Jovetic 362 10.6 24 2 11 F
13/14 Vincent Kompany 2365 69.2 28 28 D
13/14 Yaya Touré 2927 85.6 31 35 M