Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Bangers & clangers for Odion
ODION IGHALO may be doing a great back-up job for Manchester United – but one data study has named the Nigerian star the clumsiest striker in the Premier League.
Ighalo, signed on loan from Chinese side Shanghai Greenland Shenhua in January, has provided United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with an alternative to the pace of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.
The former Watford star scored five goals – all in cup competitions – in his first 12 appearances. He scored every time he started too, making his temporary deal look like very good business for United.
But according to a study for Compare.bet, Ighalo tops the list of the 20 most error-prone attackers in the top flight.
The survey – which does not take any of yesterday’s games into account – included all Premier League forwards who have played more than 45 minutes so far this season.
And it calculated the number of errors leading to goals, dispossessed balls, offsides, hitting the woodwork, big chances missed, fouls, yellow cards and red cards.
The number of errors was divided by the number of minutes played to find the average number of minutes between each player’s mistake.
Ighalo leads the field with seven mistakes during his 53 Premier League minutes on the pitch.
On average, he’s made a blunder every seven minutes and 34 seconds, with three chances missed, one foul, a shot off the woodwork, caught offside and dispossessed balls.
Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi is second with one mistake every 11 minutes and 54 seconds.
He has made 19 errors during his 226 minutes played, and a big slice of that total - seven - is due to being caught offside.
In third place is West Ham’s Albian Ajeti, with 10 mistakes in 128 minutes.