There has much been said about Leeds United’s young right back cum right midfielder Sam Byram during this off season. Premier League vultures have been circling for the £8m-rated youngster; however, according to head coach Uwe Rösler, Byram’s going nowhere. This will be excellent news for Leeds United fans as they look forward to building a team around the highly-youngster and others such as Lewis Cook, Alex Mowatt and Charlie Taylor.
Whilst Sam Byram is playing out of position but playing well, one man playing in position and playing excellently is Hoffenheim’s right wing/forward Kevin Volland. Rated by website Transfermarkt at £14m, Volland has been in excellent form for Hoffenheim over the last couple of seasons, as his 2013/14 video (below) shows.
The numbers game: Kevin Volland (red) vs. Sam Byram (blue)
Firstly, it isn’t all doom and gloom for Sam Byram when he’s compared to Kevin Volland, there are areas where the Leeds United right midfielder is more productive. Firstly, Sam Byram is by far a higher volume passer of the ball than is Kevin Volland and this can be evidenced by bother their respective completed passes per typical 90 minutes and their passing accuracy (passing %). Sam Byram completes 32.2 passes per typical 90 minutes at a passing accuracy of 76.8% (32.2 completed passes from 41.8 attempts) as opposed to Kevin Volland’s 18.2 completed passes at an accuracy of 66% (18.2 completed passes from 27.6 attempts). Whilst we are on with elements where Sam Byram returns better figures than Kevin Volland, Byram is a tidier player losing possession only 3 times per 90 typical minutes as opposed to the 4.4 possession losses suffered by Volland. However, the rest of the graphic shows Hoffenheim’s Volland way ahead of his Leeds United counterpart.
Whilst Volland may make less overall passing attempts per 90 (27.6 compared to Byram’s 41.8), a higher percentage of them are typically short passes (93.5% compared to Byram’s 91.4%). However, saying that, Byram does complete almost twice as many short passes as Volland per 90 minutes (30.9 accurate short passes compared to Volland’s 17.5 accurate short passes). The rest of Kevin Volland’s offensive production really does put Leeds United’s Sam Byram in the shade. Volland has more passes per 90 end up as shooting assists for teammates (1.9 per 90) than Sam Byram (1.1 per 90) and at a higher percentage of overall passes too. Of Kevin Volland’s total of 820 passing attempts last season, he had 46 passes lead to shooting attempts by his teammates – a rate of 5.61% of passes ending as shooting chances. In contrast, only around 2.6% (39) of Sam Byram’s 1520 pass attempts end up as shooting opportunities for teammates.
Offensively, Kevin Volland leaves Sam Byram trailing by a long way. He had eight goals last season in the Bundesliga, 10 in all competitions as opposed to the three marked all season by Sam Byram. This is a testament to the fact that he takes more shots per 90 (2.8 shots) than does his Leeds United counterpart (0.7 shots per 90). Volland’s shooting accuracy is also higher with 38.1% of his shots being on target as opposed to the 33% shooting accuracy of Sam Byram. Another spike in offensive production also shows Hoffenheim’s right wing/forward way ahead of successful dribbles per typical 90 minutes with Volland completing 2.3 dribbles per 90 compared to Byram’s 0.6 dribbles per 90.
Summary
It’s pretty simple to think about really; the graphic shows two different players – one playing out of his natural position but playing well (Leeds United’s Sam Byram) and one playing in his natural position and playing both comfortably and very well (Kevin Volland). The greater offensive output from Volland is due in part to his natural ability and skill and also the way that the team plays around him. For Byram it is different, it is the case of a talented player, playing to his strengths but in an unfamiliar position to one that he is used to. A lot of Leeds United fans, myself amongst them, would agree that the team is best served by a Sam Byram who is a strong tackling, yet rampaging full back who has accurate distribution at great volume. Saturday’s game will be interesting in that it will be interesting to see just how well Leeds United’s Gaetano Berardi copes in the left back position against the offensive capability of Kevin Volland. It will also be just as interesting to see how well a Hoffenhein defence, seemingly weak against attacks down the flanks, copes with Sam Byram running at full speed.
