Comparing Riyad Mahrez’s stats to Manchester City’s existing wingers

Planet Football • 11 Jul 2018

Manchester City have finally signed Riyad Mahrez from Leicester City after a lengthy pursuit, shelling out £60million for the 2016 Premier League winner.

Mahrez scored 17 goals and added 11 assists in Leicester’s title-winning campaign, averaging better than a goal every four games in his four years in the Premier League.

With City finally completing the deal for a player they have been chasing for at least a year, we have compared his stats from last season to Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane and Bernardo Silva.

Goals and assists

Only Sterling’s impressive haul of 18 Premier League goals last season bettered Mahrez, who netted 12 as Leicester finished ninth in the league.

Sane managed 10 goals for table-toppers City, who scored a record 106 goals in the 2017-18 season, while Silva – often used from the bench – hit six.

Sterling clearly has the best minutes-to-goal ratio, scoring once every 144 minutes. The others are all fairly similar, Sane scoring once every 242 minutes, Mahrez once every 247 and Silva once every 253.

Sane was cruelly denied a share of the Premier League’s first ever Playmaker award thanks to City’s last-gasp winner at Southampton on the final day, the German finishing on 15 assists for the season.

Mahrez’s 10 was also bettered by Sterling, who claimed one more assist than the Algerian, while Silva created four goals throughout City’s season.

Being directly involved in 29 goals meant that Sterling finished the season averaging either a goal or assist every 89.0 minutes, with Sane just behind him, his total of 25 averaging out at a goal or assist every 96.9 minutes.

Mahrez was directly involved in a goal every one and a half games, averaging 134.6 minutes per goal or assist, while Silva averaged one every 152 minutes.

Riyad Mahrez has reached double figures for goals and assists in two of the last three league seasons:

2015/16: 17 goals, 11 assists
2017/18: 12 goals, 10 assists

Double Double-Doubles. ⚽️🅰️ pic.twitter.com/LAXkY9a6x8

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) July 3, 2018

Passing and chance creation

As Jamie Vardy’s chief provider and Leicester’s most regular creator, Mahrez averaged 1.7 chances created per 90 minutes last term.

At City, Silva averaged a slightly higher 1.8 despite ending the season with just four assists, while Sterling averaged 1.9. Sane played the highest number of key passes, averaging 2.2 per 90 minutes.

Silva played the most passes per 90 minutes out of the quartet, averaging 55.4 last season, with a success rate of 87%.

With Guardiola’s style, you’d expect the City players to play a large number of passes, though Sterling (40.6) and Sane (40.5) didn’t average too many more passes per 90 minutes last season than Mahrez, who attempted 38.8 per 90.

The former Leicester man did have the worst success rate, though, completing 79.6% of his passes, with Sterling (84%) and Sane (84.2%) once again very similar.

82nd goal – West Brom – Premier League – For me, this is his best ever goal for Leicester City, even over THAT Liverpool goal! The ball from Mahrez was perfect and Vardy strikes a sweet volley with his WEAK foot and scores again at West Brom! Fantastic goal! 👏😳 pic.twitter.com/FSp2ZI7yGd

— Lennon Veasey 🍋 (@Foxyproxy1313) March 29, 2018

Dribbling

In the 2017-18 campaign, Mahrez embarked on 2.5 successful dribbles per 90 minutes, and out of the four it was only Sane who recorded more, with 3.2

Sterling managed 2.2 successful dribbles per 90, while Silva made just 1.7, though with a success rate of 70.7%.

Sane had the next best completion rate with 64.4% of his attempted dribbles proving successful, Sterling 53.7% and Mahrez only just over half, completing 51.3% of his attempted dribbles.

Despite his dribbling prowess, Sane gave the ball away more frequently than the other players, taking 3.0 unsuccessful touches per 90 minutes, and being dispossessed 2.4 times on average.

Mahrez is next, with an average of 2.8 unsuccessful touches per 90, while he was dispossessed 1.9 times.

Sterling took 2.3 unsuccessful touches per 90 minutes in the Premier League last season, being dispossessed an average of 2.0 times, while Silva was the most protective of the ball with 1.7 unsuccessful touches and being dispossessed 1.5 times per 90 minutes.

Most Successful Dribbles 17/18

🇧🇪 Eden Hazard (165)
🇨🇮 Wilfried Zaha (119)
🇩🇪 Leroy Sané (85)
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Andros Townsend (84)
🇫🇷 Arthur Masuaku (83)
🇩🇿 Riyad Mahrez (81)
🇪🇬 Mohamed Salah (79)
🇫🇷 Paul Pogba (75) pic.twitter.com/HnhKeo4VWO

— EPL Statman (@EPLStatman) May 16, 2018

Defensive contribution

Portugal winger Silva offered the best defensive contribution out of the quartet last season, completing 1.6 tackles per 90 minutes and making 0.6 interceptions.

Mahrez was next in a more compact, defensively minded Leicester side, averaging 1.2 tackles and 0.5 interceptions per 90 minutes in the Premier League.

Sane made an average of 1.0 tackles per 90 minutes and 0.5 interceptions, while Sterling managed just 0.7 tackles and 0.3 interceptions on average, despite City’s high-tempo pressing style.