Oscar, Fabregas and Hazard Compared

One of the interesting dilemmas that I have stumbled across  whilst on my Wildcard is who to choose between the abundance of Chelsea options, specifically the trio of Chelsea midfielders Oscar, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas. I am going to focus on their game time, specifically their minutes played in all competitions to date, and see what Mourinho’s preference is. 

Gametime

Below you will find some statistical data I have compiled regarding each player’s minutes in all domestic competitions.

                                        Premier League                                           Champions League

Games started (%)      Mins Played (%)      Games started(%)      Mins Played (%)

Oscar                   81.82                                     71.36                    50.00                          59.43

Hazard                 100                                        97.78                    83.33                           81.32

Fabregas             95.45                                     93.28                     100                             84.16

                                                FA Cup                                                          League Cup

Games started(%)      Mins Played (%)      Games started(%)      Mins Played (%)

Oscar                   100.00                               47.87                   50.00                             50.00

Hazard                     0                                        0                        50.00                              51.59

Fabregas                 0                                        0                        50.00                              49.47

Looking at the above data, we can see that both Hazard and Fabregas have started the most Premier League games (100% vs 95.45%) and played the most minutes (97.78% vs 93.28%) compared to Oscar, who trails behind with just 81.82% of games started and 71.36% of minutes played.

Oscar’s game time has further been reduced in the Champions League with only 50% of games started and 59.43% minutes played compared to his team-mates. It is worth noting that John Terry has started and played 100% of Premier league games so far, only being rested in one Champions League match where Chelsea had already qualified for the second round.

However, looking at domestic competitions such as the FA cup and League Cup, we can see that each of our midfield trio have similar starts and game times for the League Cup. Oscar is the only midfielder out of the trio to play in an FA Cup match (granted there has only been one match so far). Whilst the sample size may not be that large for the FA Cup and League Cup data, we can see that Mourinho prefers to play Hazard and Fabregas in the Premier League and Champions League games, and it is clear that Oscar tends to get rotated around all the competitions. We have seen a change in formation against tougher opponents, shifting Fabregas into the hole and placing Ramires/Mikel alongside Matic.

Points and Value

So why are people attracted to Oscar as an option? Well, his form and his price are the main attractions. I have listed some attacking stats for each of the midfielders below. Diego Costa is there for additional comparison.

G       A       Total points         Points/min        Points/game started   Points/million

Oscar           6        7              105                0.074309979               5.83                    12.65

Hazard         8         5             131                0.067665289               5.95                    12.24

Fabregas     2        15            120                0.064970222               5.71                    12.37

Costa           17         2             119                0.074842767               6.26                   10.63

Looking at the data above, we can see that Oscar has the lowest number of points, compared to Hazard who has the highest at 131. However, delving deeper we see that, by taking into consideration minutes played, Oscar has one of the highest points per minute ratios (0.074309979) which is higher than both Hazard and Fabregas (0.067665289 and 0.064970222) and almost on par with Costa (0.074842767). A quick look at points per game started shows that Oscar has a higher value than Fabregas (5.83 vs 5.71) but lower than Hazard and Costa (5.95 and 6.26 respectively).

A quick look at value in terms of points per million shows that Oscar has the highest (12.65 (2 d.p.)) with Fabregas and Hazard a close second (12.37 and 12.24 respectively) and Costa last (10.63).

Conclusion

To pay a budget-friendly price of 8.3 for an attacking player, who plays the no.10 role in arguably one of the best teams in the Premier League, is surely too good to pass up on and anyone who is on a Wildcard or planning to use it should have to seriously consider the young Brazilian. Many will prefer the assured game time of Hazard/Fabregas, which is fair, but nevertheless, Oscar’s ability to gain points and hit double digits in fewer minutes is certainly something to consider.