“Always we talk about the statistics – the players today play for the statistics but this is the biggest mistake they can do." That is what Pep Guardiola told the media in his press conference earlier this week when asked about the form of Jack Grealish.
Grealish was signed for £100m in the summer but has four goals and three assists in all competitions to show for it to date but Guardiola's comments suggest the raw tangibles need to sometimes be scrutinised in more detail.
"Statistics are just a bit of information that we have but there are players that make the team play good and they are not into statistics. But the players say how many goals I score or how many assists," he said.
“With these kinds of situations, they forget everything. Statistics never existed before. It’s how you play today if you perform to your maximum, to your best, help your teammates to make the process defensively and offensively better – it’s enough. Thanks to that we are going to win."
Some fans have taken this out of context to deduce from these comments that Guardiola does not believe statistics to matter, which is not what the City boss was inferring. Rather, he was saying that the major surface-level statistics with which we judge forwards do not tell the full story.
But Grealish is not the only player that has been tarred with this same brush. Since his £73m move to Manchester United this summer, Jadon Sancho has been under the microscope for every performance and a number of pundits have been quick to point out that his goal and assist numbers do not match his pricetag.
A number of pundits were quick to jump on the winger's form while others have tried to defend him, citing poor management under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and needing time to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League as reasons for why he was struggling in the first place. There are elements of truth to both of these given his upturn in form halfway through the season under Ralf Rangnick at United.
Simon Jordan threw his two cents in, by telling talkSPORT in January: "I am concerned about Jadon Sancho because one, he plays in an area of the pitch where you have to be lightning-quick, he's not.
"And two, there is only one winger that I have seen succeed at Manchester United who is not lightning quick. David Beckham. He is not a David Beckham."
I've highlighted this as one of the more bizarre Sancho takes I have seen, mainly because a number of wingers have shown that pace isn't incredibly necessary to play the position and if you look at the underlying data, which are the statistics that Guardiola was referencing as important to judging his players, they show that Sancho may not be struggling at United as much as his three goals and two assists suggest.
United have been particularly poor at finishing lately but it has not been for the want of trying to create chances and the profligacy explains Sancho's lack of assists. FBref states that despite this, the English winger is still registering 4.17 shot creating actions per 90.
On the ball he is also an important part of the team's ability to drive forward. This season he registers 9.99 progressive carries per 90 and more important 2.46 carries into the penalty area per 90, which puts him among some of the best players in his position in the Premier League.
Sancho may have started slowly but he is now coming into his own under Rangnick and it is highly likely he will be an important part of the next permanent manager's plans. Just like Guardiola said, if you look deeper than just his goals and assists, United have some player on their hands.
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