The most divisive player at West Ham recently put pen to paper on a new five year deal with the club, but despite being with us for 3 years thus far, he is an enigma even now.

Many West Ham fans are yet to be convinced by Masuaku, claiming that his weakness is blatant and clear to see, yet the club’s manager gave the go ahead to a new long term deal for the player just a number of days ago. Reliable reports (via @exwhuemployee on Twitter) have told us that the manager is a big fan of Masuaku and wanted to demonstrate this faith with this new deal. This got me thinking about whether Pellegrini carries blind optimism for the player, or if he sees something in the player that is perhaps not easy to see. For this reason, I decided to look into the data behind the player and compare him to the other players that play his position in the premier league.

Defensive statistics:

An appropriate place to begin, I believe, is with Arthur’s defensive contribution to the game. Without a doubt the most scrutinised aspect of his performances, but, is it all as bad as many would make out?

Tackling:

Arthur’s tackling statistics may surprise a large proportion of people, but they do match his style of play. We know that he is a fast player who enjoys playing on the front foot, and is a fairly aggressive defender, actively seeking opportunity to regain possession. These factors ultimately contribute to what is an extremely impressive 2.5 tackles per 90 minutes. To add context to this figure, this is the second highest number for first choice left backs in the Premier League last season, behind Bernardo of Brighton. When compared to some of the stand out left backs of last campaign at clubs of a similar stature to West Ham (such as Chilwell and Digne) Arthur shines. The Leicester and Everton pair both had stellar seasons and put up solid tackling figures per 90 (1.5 and 2 respectively) but Masuaku manages to pip them both in the tackling department, perhaps indicating to us that the player is more adept at this aspect of the game than may have first been thought.

Interceptions:

So, we have seen that when faced one vs one with an opponent, Masuaku can hold his own in the tackle, but how about his performance off of the ball. For this, I decided to assess the interception statistics of PL left backs last term.

Similarly to the tackling statistics, Masuaku seems to extremely over perform against general consensus from the footballing community. The Congolese international’s 1.6 interceptions per 90 yet again land him towards the top of the pile, this time earning him fifth spot for PL left backs last term. The impressive figure shows not only a desire to win back the ball early and set the team on the front foot, but also a high level of ability to do so. It is also worth noting that Pellegrini’s faith in the player may stem somewhat from these particular stats. We know that Manuel is building an attacking team and packing it with technique, but these players need aggressive defenders to win the ball for them in order for them to be on the front foot. Arthurs 4.1 tackles and interceptions combined per 90 shows a player with good ability to regain possession proactively and get West Ham back onto the attack. This, for me, is one of the main appeals of the player.

Offensive statistics:

A less fan base splitting aspect of Arthur’s game is his offensive presence. Whenever he gets the ball, there is a clear anticipation that he could do something special, and he has done so many times. That said, there are also comments that his final ball must improve, which I have looked into, too.

Key passes:

Undoubtedly the weakest element of Arthur’s game from my research is his key passes per 90 minutes. The West Ham man only managed 0.6 key passes per 90 last season, a figure that lands him 14th for left backs in the Premier League. Now, whilst this does make for some concerning reading, it is important to add context to statistics. Pellegrini likes to play with inside forwards who start wide and travel towards the centre where it is more congested. Whilst this is a very fruitful tactic for Manuel’s hammers, it does somewhat limit the opportunity of our full back to split the defence with a key pass, as his primary target (Anderson) is typically either waiting in front of the defence wanting the ball to feet in order to turn and run at his man, or he is already on the move to a more central area and is thus harder to pick out. Furthermore, the lack of a focal point in the West Ham setup also hindered Arthur’s chances. Despite being an undoubtedly talented player, Arnautovic lacked the movement of a real striker, and as a result he did not make certain runs which could have been found with a key pass. Is the low key passes figure an ominous stat? Sure. But, I believe that this stat will improve this season if Arthur gets consistent minutes with Anderson in order to form a partnership, and also due to the presence of Sebastien Haller up front.

Dribbling:

So, here’s the fun part. I don’t know of a single fan who doesn’t get excited when this man has the ball at his feet, and there is plenty of justification for this. Masuaku completed a huge 1.6 dribbles per 90 minutes, last season. Again, for context, that is equal with Gerard Deulofeu, and better than both James Maddison and Richarlison. Unsurprisingly, this places Arthur in first place for dribbles for Premier League left backs last season, beating the highly praised Chilwell and Digne to top spot. As mentioned before, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these numbers increase even further next season, as with the plethora of attacking options West Ham have, Masuaku may be afforded even more space to work some magic. An exciting proposition indeed.

West Ham with, and without, Masuaku:

At West Ham, we are used to having two players in a particular position constantly alternating, with neither ever being able to nail down the shirt for themselves. This has been the case over recent seasons with Masuaku and Aaron Cresswell. Due to being in and out of the team, it may be easy to assume that when Masuaku plays, he does not do enough to warrant continued selection, but this may not be the case. The graphic below demonstrates figures for wins, draws and losses for West Ham with, and without, Masuaku.

West Ham played 20 games with Arthur, and 18 without. For this reason, I have calculated the percentage of possible points that West Ham attained, rather than just a raw number.

With Masuaku:

So, from the 20 games played with Arthur featuring, there were 60 points available to West Ham. During these matches, the hammers secures 10 wins along with 3 draws and 7 defeats, totalling 33 points out of a possible 60 points. This equates to a percentage of 55% points gained from the total number of points available. If you take this base line 55% rate over a whole season, it equates to 62.7 points, which last season, would have secured seventh place by 5 clear points. Food for thought.

Without Masuaku:

In the other 18 matches in which Masuaku did not feature, West Ham secured 5 wins, 4 draws and 9 losses. This means a total of 19 points was gained from these matches, from a possible 54. As a percentage of total points won from the points available, this is just 35%, a huge drop off. Again, if you generalise this over an entire league season, it equates to 40 points, just 6 points above the drop.

Overall:

I would like to have a more general look at Masuaku’s figures, and some of the unquantifiables regarding his game. On a broader statistical standpoint, Masuaku received a 7.0 average match rating last season when starting at left back which earns him seventh place for PL left backs. This is a very respectable figure, in what is a very competitive position on the field. Though, the claim can be made that Arthur has too many lapses in concentration, but these are hard to calculate statistically and are thus unquantifiable. Whilst these dips in concentration are an issue, I truly believe that a run of consistent starts in the team will start to reduce the number of lapses occurring, as partnerships can be formed and the movement of teammates can be anticipated better by Arthur, resulting in him plugging any gaps left by teammates more proficiently. Another unquantifiable, which benefits Masuaku this time, is just his presence on the field. Teams are aware of how good he is at carrying the ball, and will be scared to allow him too much space to operate within, perhaps opting to mark him more tightly, or doubling up on him. This gives our other creative players more of an area to work within, ultimately benefitting West Ham.

To conclude, I believe that Masuaku is a far better player than he is given credit for, especially in the defensive domain. I believe that he is a player at a good age with plenty of room to grow under the right manager, and I think that Pellegrini is that manager. With it looking like he will be our first choice left back next season, I am expecting to see a good campaign from the defender, which will see his stock rise within the fan base. I, for one, am backing our enigma.

Credit to WhoScored for statistics.

Credit to @whuaIan on Twitter for the graphic (capital “i”, not an L)