Omari Hutchinson, one of the Premier League’s most exciting young prospects, recently made his loan move to Ipswich Town permanent. After a blistering spell in the Championship last year, it was only right that the Tractor Boys should shell out a record fee of £20 million to secure his services.

Now, although I am not usually someone who loves to dive into the algorithms, xG and statistics, Omari’s transfer got me thinking. How can I prove his quality without just telling you to ‘watch him play’?

As the ‘eye-tests’ of old become replaced by G+A, players on paper and figures on a diagram, it seems fitting to dive into the stats and demonstrate exactly why Omari is going to be the one to keep us in the Premier League.

I have used a randomly selected spread of the following five fixtures to prove that Omari greatly outperforms his attacking counterparts on a regular basis. Here are the fixtures and their results:

– Ipswich 6-0 Sheffield Wednesday

– Norwich 1-0 Ipswich

–  Ipswich 0-0 Watford

– Southampton 0-1 Ipswich

– Millwall 0-4 Ipswich

Ipswich play a 4-2-3-1 formation. Omari occupies one slot in the three and the comparative statistics represent the combination of players filling the other two slots in each fixture.

This was a rotation of Wes Burns, Nathan Broadhead, Conor Chaplin and Kayden Jackson, who played across the LW, CAM and RW positions.

The statistics below are cumulative across the fixtures. Since Omari plays predominantly on the right-wing, the other two positions are labelled CAM and LW.

DRIBBLING

I selected two main statistics to prove the players’ dribbling quality across the fixtures. They are successful take-ons/take-ons attempted, and progressive carries.

These metrics demonstrate the players’ ability to beat defenders in 1v1 scenarios and to progress the play with the ball at their feet. Here are the players’ stats for these matches:

As we can see, Omari excels in this area. He completes more take-ons alone than all of the other players combined.

The case is the same for progressive dribbles. This means Omari advances the play significantly more than other players when in possession and is able to beat his man 1v1 not only more frequently, but also more consistently.

From this data we can deduce that his dribbling is far superior to that of his teammates. This will pay dividends in a league where we are often the underdog and may struggle to create chances.

SHOOTING

The two chosen metrics to measure shooting ability were shots on target/shots attempted, and number of goals.

Simply put, these statistics show the players’ propensity to take frequent, accurate shots and, most importantly, put the ball in the back of the net. Here are the players’ stats for the matches:

Omari’s shooting stats show that although he takes a lower number of accurate shots, he is clinical when doing so. This was highlighted throughout our season and sets him apart from other players.

His goals across these games came from distances of 13m, 17m and 20m, with Post-Shot xGs of 0.3, 0.32 and 0.47 respectively. Post-Shot xG is the expected goals based on how likely the goalkeeper is to save a shot after it has been taken.

All 3 of Omari’s goals came from range, but all also registered high xG.

With this in mind, we can see that he often takes high quality shots from distance, despite their difficulty.

Omari’s ability to fire off precise, long-distance strikes will be crucial to our survival attempt as we may often lack the capacity to work the ball all the way into the box.

PASSING

Three key metrics stood out for me when analysing a player’s passing. These were key passes, passes into opponent’s final third, and assists.

These quantifiers measure the player’s ability to unlock opposition defences, as well as to close out attacks with a killer final ball. Here are the players’ passing stats over the five games:

Passing is an attribute where I’d argue Omari stands out less amongst his peers. I feel both initial chance creation and final output are needed to represent significantly better passing.

So, although his vision is able to open up defences and penetrate lateral lines, he is not rewarded with assists any more frequently than his counterparts.

If he can continue to work on this to partner his dribbling and marksman’s finish, it could be crucial to increasing clear cut chances per 90 by providing our strikers with more ammunition.

MOVEMENT

Movement was an area in which I felt only one important metric was required. This was the progressive passes received as a % of all passes received by the player.

Essentially, this statistic proves how often a player’s positioning is able to facilitate forward play, as opposed to them receiving the ball from a backwards or sideways pass. Here are the stats across the games selected:

Overall, Omari’s movement is merely average compared to his teammates. An increase in this % would allow us to improve the transition phase of our play.

Thus, we would shift the ball quicker from defence to attack, as players’ movement would create gaps that open passing lanes.

But, it is important to note that Omari does not fall below average in this attribute, he is merely less remarkable.

FINAL ANALYSIS

From the statistics provided I believe it is very clear that Omari stands out as our most potent attacking threat.

Not only does he have vastly superior dribbling skills, but he possesses a more clinical ranged shot than his teammates and the ability to shift the ball more effectively into the final third.

He never falls below average in any core attribute, but excels in many. This shows the completeness of his skillset as a player. If used correctly, his vision, ball carrying, and supremacy in 1v1 situations will be real weapons for us this season.

Such attributes allow us to progress play quicker, overcome rigidly structured defences and fashion higher calibre chances from wide areas.

Despite the arrivals of Sammie Szmodics and Jack Clarke, the statistics have me convinced of Omari’s influence in our team, and I hope McKenna will look to utilise him as our primary attacking outlet.

If utilised in this way, I believe Omari will be the one to keep us in the Premier League.  

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