Back in November I wrote about the Million Dollar Murph Paradox, where I argued that Luke’s time at Leeds should come to an end. I was wrong. When the clock ticked over onto 00:01 January 1st 2015 something awoke inside Luke, something epic. Here’s a look at his turnaround utilising data. Mmmm, data.

I’ve never been more happy to be wrong, too. My feelings towards our million-pound midfielder was summarised by this cutting statement:

Luke Murphy’s arrival onto the pitch normally means we’re about to lose whatever tenuous grasp of the game we had. Murph has found himself an unwilling mascot for giving up.

Fans would audibly sigh en-masse when his number was held up on the board, it often meant that our midfield was about to lose the plot in an immediate way. 2015 Murph is a completely different player. Whether it’s down to his blossoming partnership with wonderkid Lewis Cook, his position on the pitch, our formation, tactics or coaching – I can’t really say. What I can do is look at the data to tell this Cinderella story. Let’s go.

Last Season

Rather than look at each and every match, I’ve opted to average his appearances to give a “per-match” figure for some important metrics (using data extracted from WhoScored.com). Luke made 37 appearances in the Championship in the 2013/14 season and managed the following:

109 tackles

35 shots

3 goals

2 assists

14 dribbles

Which gives us the following metrics:

2.95 tackles per game

0.95 shots per game

0.08 goals per game

0.05 assists per game

0.38 dribbles per game

Murph was underwhelming last season, as most fans saw it. In fact many were hoping he would be replaced, he didn’t offer enough to justify his first-team inclusion.

2014/15 Season – Pre New Year

Luke started the first 3 games of the season and was subsequently dropped, only to offer so little that he didn’t really feature again.

Luke only appeared 7 times over 24 games between the start of the season and New Years Eve. He played 90 minutes in the first two games, 81 minutes in the third and then missed the next 5.

He then featured in the next 3 games but only as a substitute, getting 10 minutes, 35 minutes and 45 minutes respectively. Across those games he was utterly ineffectual. So lacklustre was his performance that he only played 30 more minutes of first team football between the first week of October and January 1st 2015.

Averages:

1.43 tackles per game

0.43 shots per game

0.00 goals per game

0.00 assists per game

0.00 dribbles per game

3.18% possession held

Granted, those above statistics are slightly skewed by his substitute appearances, but if we look solely at the two games he played the full 90 minutes you’d get:

3 tackles per game

0.5 shots per game

0.00 goals per game

0.00 assists per game

0.00 dribbles per game

4.75% possession held

So it’s not much better. Ineffectual and sufficient justification for my original Million Dollar Murph article where I largely wrote his eulogy.

2015: A Murph Reborn

Whatever profound Christmas ghost appeared before Luke over the holiday period had a positive impact; Redfearn dragged him back into the first team, put him alongside Lewis Cook and watched him perform like the player his potential suggested he could.

A terrific “re-debut” against Bolton showed him at his dynamic best, making tackles, having lots of shots and lots of the ball. He had 2 more shots against Bolton in that one match than he’d managed in the 7 games before Christmas.

What followed was back-to-back goals against Birmingham and Bournemouth, then an assist against Huddersfield. Million Dollar Murph had found his form.

Luke Murphy has played every single Championship game in 2015, something that was unthinkable back in December.

Averages:

3.82 tackles per game

1.91 shots per game

0.27 goals per game

0.09 assists per game

0.91 dribbles per game

6.28% possession held per game

Remarkable, really.

2015 vs. the 2013/14 Season

Let’s compare the averages from games Luke has played in 2015 against his 2013/14 season averages:

+0.87 tackles per game

+0.96 shots per game

+0.19 goals per game

+0.04 assists per game

+0.53 dribbles per game

But that only says so much, let’s look at that in percentage increase terms:

+29.6% tackles per game

+101.8% shots per game

+236.4% goals per game

+68.2% assists per game

+140.3% dribbles per game

What can we take from that? Luke is performing much, much better than his 2013/14 self. So whatever happened to Luke has benefited Leeds United.

Million Dollar Murph? Quite rightly so. Keep it up, Luke.