Aberdeen last night completed a deal for 21-year-old Nottingham Forest right-back Jayden Richardson and the natural question is: How does he stack up against Calvin Ramsay?
The Dons acted quickly to land a replacement for Ramsay, with the teen right-back’s move to Premier League giants Liverpool – in deal worth up to £8 million – only officially confirmed on Sunday.
On Monday, Forest were paid an undisclosed fee for Richardson and, although the Reds’ big cash injection from the Ramsay sale will have made it easier to move quickly and decisively to replace him, the people at the club involved in recruitment were clearly totally convinced the incoming Englishman would be able to fill the void.
It feels only natural then to do a stats comparison between the players, to see where the numbers are similar and where they differ.
From watching Ramsay, especially in the first half of last season, we know he is a confident runner, taking the ball deep into the opposition half to lay on assists for his team-mates.
Descriptions of Richardson from those who watched him on loan at Notts County last season paint a similar picture – a modern, attack-focused, frequently-overlapping wing-back with pace to burn who sends in a lot of crosses, but who could also improve his finishing when he has chances to score himself.
But what do the stats say?
Well, Opta don’t do stats for the National League, where Notts County ply their trade, so we don’t have that depth of detail for last term.
However, what we do have, though, are detailed stats for Richardson’s previous loan spell – a full campaign with English League Two Forest Green Rovers in season 2020/21 – as well as, of course, Ramsay’s Premiership stats for Aberdeen last term.
It’s not perfect, but let’s see what we can garner from the numbers…
Similar defensive stats, but numbers show fewer crosses, chances created and assists
Without opening a toxic can of worms, you’d probably say the top-flight in Scotland is a higher standard than the fourth tier down south, but, even at that level at Forest Green a couple of years ago, the then-20-year-old Richardson wasn’t quite putting up the kind of stats Ramsay managed for the Dons over the last year.
This was in a season where Forest Green finished sixth, while we know Aberdeen were a lowly 10th in the Premiership in the season recently finished.
The sets of stats compare well, because – although the starts and total appearances differ and came a season apart – you’ll notice the total minutes played were remarkably close. Richardson played 1,640 minutes for Forest Green in 2020/21, and Ramsay played three more minutes, at 1,643, for Aberdeen in 2021/22.
Their dribbling numbers were similar.
In 16 starts for Forest Green in 20/21, Richardson managed 22 dribbles, while in 20 league starts in 21/22, Ramsay completed 21.
Both players failed to complete a further 20-or-so dribbles, meaning a success rate of nearly 50% f0r each of them when it came to running the ball.
Defensively there were also similarities – firstly, in terms of tackles made (Richardson – 17; Ramsay – 19), and, secondly, winning possession (Richardson – 76; Ramsay – 83), although Richardson’s nine interceptions were markedly lower than Ramsay’s 19.
However, where the two players’ campaigns we’ve looked at varied most was in their attacking influence.
Richardson’s open-play cross rate in League Two in 20/21 was much lower than Ramsay’s in the Premiership last term (28 crosses to a significantly higher 81 crosses, with both having a 14-15% success rate), while Ramsay also created more than double the chances (Richardson – 19; Ramsay – 42) of his Pittodrie replacement across a season.
So the departed youngster was putting far more quality balls into the area for team-mates than Richardson managed during his time with Forest Green.
While the campaign we were able to look at saw Richardson take 20 shots in the league for Forest Green, he scored no goals, backing up the the finishing point from those who watched him at Notts County. Ramsay scored his only Aberdeen goal with a brilliant strike at Dundee and had only 13 attempts during last term.
Of course, Ramsay also had more assists than any teen full-back in any of Europe’s top leagues last term, setting up four goals. In the Forest Green season, Richardson recorded no assists.
Although the basic stats we have access to show Richardson did score a goal in the National League for Notts County last season – against Wrexham in January – his time at Forest Green shows he may have to fine-tune his attacking game if he is going to make the same impact as the younger Ramsay did for Aberdeen in his short time in the first team.
Reds boss Jim Goodwin said he hopes his new signing “will use this as a platform to go and prove himself.” It’s something Dons fans will be hoping he can do, too.
