On Tuesday we published a story showing Manyisa and Letsholonyane's statistics from their last League matches played and it sparked a lot of debate as many readers commented that Manyisa's high successful pass percentage was due to the alleged fact that he "only passes sideways and backwards".
READ: STATS: Yeye vs Oupa (Part 1)
Interestingly, the stats show that although Oupa (30 percent) makes fewer forward passes than 'Yeye' (50 percent) per game, he is more successful than the Chiefs man with those forward passes.
However, this statement above needs to be balanced by the logic that if you attempt more passes, you will also fail with more passes, especially if you are attempting a difficult final ball that leads to a goal.
Yeye attempts more than double the number of forward passes than Oupa (33 to 14) per game, double the number of passes into the final third of the opposing side (13 to 6) and about four times the number of passes into the opposing penalty area (4 to 1) per game.
The passing statistic that really matters shows that Yeye has produced two assists so far this season compared to Oupa's zero – but this could also mean that Manyisa's Pirates teammates have missed more of the chances he has created than Letsholonyane's Chiefs teammates.
The defensive stats also suggest that Yeye reads the game better than Oupa, with double the number of interceptions per game than the Bucs midfielder.
In terms of goalscoring, the ratios are more or less in balance. Yeye's six goals to Manyisa's three just about corresponds with the number of shots they attempt per game (2.78 to 1.22) – although it must be noted that Manyisa has scored two goals from the penalty spot.
Below are the two players' per-game averages for their nine matches played this season.
Season averages:
Oupa Yeye
Matches Played 9 9
Time On Pitch 96.1 96.2
Goals 3 6
Assists 0 2
Passes Per Game 46.22 67.11
% Successful Passes 91.59 84.77
% of Passes Forward 29.57 49,66
Fwd Passes Per Game 13.67 33.33
% Succ. Fwd Passes 85.37 76.67%
Passes Into Final 3rd 5.78 12.56
Passes Into Pen Area 1.22 4.11
Succ. Pen Area Passes 0.56 1.44
Tackles Per Game 2.33 2.22
Interceptions Per Game 6.44 11.67
Shots Per Game 1.22 2.78
Shots On Target 0.44 1
Shooting Accuracy 36.36 36
Balls Received 47.56 67.56
*All stats are averages per game so far this season
Statistics are a useful tool for analysis but we all know that the real evidence is what happens on the pitch. Saturday's MTN8 Final is the perfect stage for these two opposing players to show us what they're all about!
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