I took the time to collect all the data I could possibly find on every outfield player who played at least a single minute in the Premier League in 2014/15.
I found 450 players. It is entirely possible that I may have missed a player or two, stuff happens. Apologies if I missed anyone.
I logged minutes played, age during the 2014/15 season, and position (I probably won't get into position today). Having gathered this data I decided to create three age buckets for the data I had.
Pre-peak Players who were under 23 years old (22 and younger).
Peak Players who were aged 23 to 29 years old.
Post-peak Players who were aged 29 years old and older.
Now, your own definition of pre-peak, peak, and post-peak may vary. I could barely decide how to put all these age groups in to 3 separate buckets. In the end, I decided on the definition you see above.
*Personally, I think true physical peak is somewhere around 22-26. Physical peak married with experience probably stretches that peak to 23 - 28. Manager usage peak is, what, 24 - 30?
The Table
Having counted the number of players, logged the age of said players, logged minutes played and decided on our pre/peak/post definition I can create the table you see below.Some thoughts below...
Count = number of players. Total Minutes = number of total minutes. % Minutes = % of minutes for each group.
| Count | Under 23 Minutes | 23 – 28 Minutes | Over 29 Minutes | Total Minutes | Under 23 Minutes | 23 – 28 Minutes | Over 29 Minutes | % Minutes | % Mins Under 23 | % Mins 23 – 28 | % Mins Over 29 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGE AVE | 4.1 | 12.2 | 7.7 | LGE AVE | 3345.85 | 18418 | 12145.25 | LGE AVE | 9.87 | 54.32 | 35.82 |
| Arsenal | 4 | 10 | 8 | Arsenal | 4629 | 15201 | 14031 | Arsenal | 13.67 | 44.89 | 41.44 |
| Aston Villa | 3 | 12 | 8 | Aston Villa | 3185 | 21048 | 7322 | Aston Villa | 10.09 | 66.70 | 23.20 |
| Burnley | 2 | 10 | 10 | Burnley | 1661 | 16879 | 15552 | Burnley | 4.87 | 49.51 | 45.62 |
| Chelsea | 6 | 12 | 5 | Chelsea | 848 | 21630 | 11620 | Chelsea | 2.49 | 63.43 | 34.08 |
| Palace | 3 | 15 | 7 | Palace | 2334 | 23895 | 7755 | Palace | 6.87 | 70.31 | 22.82 |
| Everton | 7 | 8 | 11 | Everton | 8662 | 10859 | 14688 | Everton | 25.32 | 31.74 | 42.94 |
| Hull | 1 | 15 | 9 | Hull | 1527 | 19650 | 12828 | Hull | 4.49 | 57.79 | 37.72 |
| Leicester | 4 | 12 | 9 | Leicester | 3566 | 16603 | 14010 | Leicester | 10.43 | 48.58 | 40.99 |
| Liverpool | 8 | 9 | 6 | Liverpool | 12524 | 13372 | 8278 | Liverpool | 36.65 | 39.13 | 24.22 |
| Man City | 1 | 7 | 13 | Man City | 137 | 9365 | 24669 | Man City | 0.40 | 27.41 | 72.19 |
| Man United | 9 | 14 | 7 | Man United | 4088 | 17277 | 12752 | Man United | 11.98 | 50.64 | 37.38 |
| Newcastle | 5 | 11 | 7 | Newcastle | 4466 | 19084 | 10576 | Newcastle | 13.09 | 55.92 | 30.99 |
| QPR | 3 | 16 | 8 | QPR | 419 | 21378 | 12157 | QPR | 1.23 | 62.96 | 35.80 |
| Southampton | 8 | 12 | 3 | Southampton | 2228 | 22662 | 9265 | Southampton | 6.52 | 66.35 | 27.13 |
| Stoke | 2 | 12 | 8 | Stoke | 5 | 21469 | 12727 | Stoke | 0.01 | 62.77 | 37.21 |
| Sunderland | 1 | 13 | 8 | Sunderland | 2774 | 17387 | 13985 | Sunderland | 8.12 | 50.92 | 40.96 |
| Swansea | 4 | 16 | 6 | Swansea | 442 | 22406 | 9993 | Swansea | 1.35 | 68.23 | 30.43 |
| Tottenham | 5 | 17 | 3 | Tottenham | 7970 | 23521 | 2600 | Tottenham | 23.38 | 68.99 | 7.63 |
| West Brom | 2 | 11 | 11 | West Brom | 4901 | 11839 | 17324 | West Brom | 14.39 | 34.76 | 50.86 |
| West Ham | 4 | 12 | 7 | West Ham | 551 | 22835 | 10773 | West Ham | 1.61 | 66.85 | 31.54 |
The real standout in this table, for me at least, is the lack of Premier League players under the age of 23. Just 82 outfield players, under the age of 23, featured in the Premier League this season. Those 82 under 23 players accounted for 17% of all outfield players.
Is 17% a low figure? My gut says yes, but we know the Premier League isn't a development league, we know it is very difficult for young players to crack the lineup for a Premier League team. Thing is, as low as that 17% figure is, the under 23's played just 9% of the available minutes.
Not only are there very few young (pre-peak) players int his league but the ones that are with the first teams at their respective clubs barely play.
17% of players are under 23, and they played just 9% of the time. Is there an issue with trust at play here? Is the Premier League so hyper competitive that rookie mistakes are too costly to be risked? It's certainly one theory. Young players making up the numbers within squads, filling in for injured colleagues may also skew the numbers we see above.
Here is the skew between the player count and the distribution of minutes played.
Are you experienced?
Now, do you remember that first table with the basic data in it? Let's visualize that.
All 20 Premier League teams and the percentage of minutes played for each group is in this graph.
Chelsea and Manchester United are pretty close to league average in terms of the percentage of minutes played by pre/peak/post players.
The old men of Manchester City don't look good by this measure. A slew of important players turned 29 this past season and it is that group of players that make up the majority of post-peak minutes.
Teams who dedicated heavy minutes to pre-peak players? Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham.
Worth noting that Liverpool stand out like a sore thumb on this graph: young players develop, let them work through the mistakes and reap the benefits in year+3/ That is if you can keep those guys together.
Now, grouping all these different ages and squeezing them into just 3 age brackets isn't always the best way to look at this data. Knowing this, in the graph below you will find a full age breakdown for each and every Premier League team.
There's a 2014/15 age curve and a mountain of other information on each team in the chart below, far too much information for me to recap here. But allow me to talk briefly of two teams.
Liverpool As I mentioned earlier, are mighty young. Just click on Liverpool's tab and look at the number of minutes given to players age 20, 21, 22, 24 & 25. These guys will make mistakes. The future should be a little brighter once these guys move into their peak years. Liverpool fans, just lighten up a bit. Help is on it's way, and that help is mostly already at your club.
Man City You know, this team isn't that old it's just got sooo many guys who are about to be old (and post-peak) in a year or two from now. Man City don't need to tear this team down, you don't need a fire sale or a rebuild of a team who post 65% shots numbers.
You need a re-energizing of the playing staff, not a rebuild.
Manchester City should be focused on phasing out some of the older, less important players; there should also be a concerted effort to lessen the burden on the generational talents like Silva and Toure in order to maximize what they have left in the tank.
How does a club do this? You buy elite players who can take some of the heavy minutes, and those new elite players don't have to be 20 years old. In fact, it's probably a far better idea if some of those new guys are 23 or 24 years old. No growing pains, no mistakes, no trust issues. Just plug-in-and-play. Luckily Man City do have some money available.
Back to the future.
