I don't get the scoffing by some people in regards to Van Gaal mentioning Di Maria's assists
Assists are important
If you 12 assists, that means you've be integral to your side getting 12 goals
That is deserving of praise and should be mentioned
I don't get why some are getting bent out of shape when it's being used as a positive to discuss Di Maria's season
It's an important stat and should be considered
Assists are important for sure, but I feel like football stats are generally very poor currently. They don't explain how useful a player actually is. I haven't seen much of United this season, so I'm not fit to judge Di Maria (although, for the price tag you'd expect him to be integral to their side, and he doesn't seem to be).
Pienaar is the classic example. He never had huge assist numbers, but often set up the pass that led to an assist, which can be a far more difficult skill. That doesn't show up in his stats.
Take, for example, a player that sits in the box and doesn't do much, but players lump it up to him a lot and he knocks it down for others to score. He's useful, for sure, he leads to goals, but it doesn't mean he's a great footballer, nor does it mean he's good for the overall health of the team - he spends all his time in one area of the pitch doing one thing well.
Football stats have a
long way to go to being able to actually explain the skill of a player. Basketball is the perfect example of a free-flowing sport that has had a recent statistical revolution that allows us to tell far more about the quality of an individual that we could 10 years ago. I suspect football will go down that route and assists will become a somewhat outdated statistical measurement. The goal column will also likely be lessened in value if measurements can begin to show things like touch, build up play, link up play, movement, and heatmap goal data - i.e. how likely is this player to score given a specific set of circumstances. Currently the only way to differentiate Lukaku and Jelavic is to watch them, when they are clearly different players and bring different things to a team.
