When was the last time that Leeds United had a centre-back in the Championship team of the week? Well, let’s reset the counter whatever it is, because debutant Sol Bamba has gone in on his first attempt. I take a look at his debut with the ambition of placing far too much hope and expectation on him until he has a Zaliukas-tier meltdown against Wednesday. Good? Let’s begin.

I did cheekily see if Leeds statto Andy Dalton’s encyclopedic memory had catalogued information this mundane, evidently not… So let’s look at his debut.

@ihatelufc Christ! Is there a way of checking??! — Andrew Dalton (@lufcstats) February 5, 2015

Sol Bamba vs. Huddersfield

A man of the match performance and a debut worthy of team-of-the-week recognition, but what about the raw data? I like data.

Bamba made 13 clearances, 7 interceptions and 2 tackles, conceding only 1 foul. Compared to captain Coops (9 clearances, 4 interceptions, 2 tackles, 1 foul) it’s a very encouraging set of stats. Especially considering how much Huddersfield were pressing at times when we lost momentum.

He made 26 passes (compared to Coop’s 17) with an accuracy of 69.2% (compared with the captain’s 64.7%). He even recorded a dribble.

He had 49 touches of the ball (the fourth most of any Leeds player) and had the third highest passing accuracy. Made the most clearances and made the most interceptions.

So in short, he was ever-present and crucial to keeping the ball out of our goal. A good start.

Compared to Jason Pearce and Giuseppe Bellusci

Perhaps premature to make comparisons after only one match, but I’m keen to assess data so I’m going to press on unhindered. Let’s look at the Bournemouth match, because that too required quite a lot of defending.

Bellusci – 7 clearances, 4 interceptions, 3 tackles. 39% passing accuracy from 19 passes and 35 touches.

Cooper – 6 clearances, 2 interceptions, 2 tackles. 73.7% passing accuracy from 19 passes and 29 touches.

What can we glean from this?

That Sol Bamba had a great debut. Until he plays more games there’s not a fat lot more we can derive from this data – individual players can have superb matches, but it’s recurring form that matters most.

With a murderous set of fixtures in February I’ll be looking to do another analysis when there’s much more data to look at. Hopefully I’ll be able to sit here a month from now, smug after 6 clean sheets. But I’m perhaps more likely to win the lottery than I am be in that position.

On and on. Blame Tom Lees.