“Iron” Mike Williamson: The best centre back in the Premiership so far

Posted on November 1st, 2012 | 53 Comments |

Mike Williamson: Top defender.
Mike Williamson: You're simply the best!
He is according to football stats site “whoscored.com” anyway, where he is Newcastle United’s only representative in their Premiership team of the season so far.

In this he joins players such as Robin van Persie, Juan Mata, Gareth Bale and other top players, just nudging out Tottenham’s Jan Vertonghen as best centre back, and tying with Everton’s Leighton Baines as best defender in the league full stop, with an overall rating of 7.6 out of 10.

Like Danny Simpson last season, Williamson is a vastly underrated player who may confound some of his armchair critics within the Newcastle United fanbase with his excellent defending statistics. It won’t confound Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew though, who recently said of the big lad:

“Willo’s been brilliant. People forget I’ve never favoured anybody over anybody else, and Willo put in one of his great performances (against the Mackems -wt). He was brilliant for us.”

In the whoscored ratings he is measured on metrics such as tackles, interceptions, fouls won and lost and many other things including more offensive characteristics. But you can see for yourselves here, here and here.

Howay Iron Mike!

Whoscored.coms best Premiership eleven (so far).
Whoscored.coms best Premiership eleven (so far).

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Comment on this post

53 Responses

  1. Soz WT but I just dont see that ! As Laudrup has suggested what’s the point of counting a 5m backward pass as part of an overall passing stat ?

    Likewise Willo’s stats are probably not joined up i.e. header won that then drops kindly for an opponent !

  3. Well done Mike! (not Ashley though).

    Like Simpson I’ve always thought he’s a good defender who’s been unfairly criticized by some fans (Chuck) :-)

    Going off topic a bit, the last round of the capital one cup was absolutely brilliant! Arsenal 7 Reading 5, Chelsea 5 manU 4 AET, Swansea knocking out the bin dippers and an excellent win for Hughton against Spurs. Much better than watching our lot at the moment!

  4. toontony says:
    November 1, 2012 at 3:12 pm

    Agreed toontony. Apart from the goalfests, I was particularly pleased by Hughton’s masterful double substitution against his old club when he was a goal down, and the master (Laudrup) showing the pretender (Rodgers) how it’s really done.

    If Mike Williamson was called “Michel Guillaumefils” and we signed him for £6 million from Marseilles or somewhere like that, perhaps he wouldn’t have quite so many critics? :-)

  5. UTD111 says:
    November 1, 2012 at 3:05 pm

    “I’m off to change me Fantasy League Team!”

    Who do you have ATM Utd?

    And aye, I did nick that “Iron Mike” from you. It’s quite a good one.

  8. This should generate a discussion…

    My position hasn’t changed: he’s a decent squad player. He would be a quite good player if he were better with the ball at his feet. Even that site-and I have no idea as the to the reliability of the site-rates his passing as a weakness.

    There should be competition for the spot in the squad he occupies. I don’t mean between Williamson and a guy who also backs up 2/3 other positions.

    Do you know where chuck is in the city, worky? if he’s below 34th St. in Manhattan he almost definitely has no power.

  9. He said he lived in Carnegie Hill area tunyc !

    How are you though, forgot to ask earlier :( You got power at home/work and can you get about easily ? Do you need some RedBlog.org parcels ????

  10. BTW I’m reasonably sure Willo was at fualt with one of the Reading goals plus he was out of position at Everton and failed to pick up Evans for the Mancs first goal…. there’s probably more if I could be arsed to think hard enough ?

  12. <<<<<<<<<<<<, has lost count of the times that dudes been nutmeged,always the dude out of postion

  13. Cant be sure where and when but I have an image of Willo in my mind hacking away at a ball dropping into the box and missing it !

  17. Doubt it westcoast but its interesting to note, according to whoscored.com, our style is characterised as “Newcastle United Style – Long balls”

    Quelle surprise !!!!

  18. AndyMac, I think that’s spam, but now your comment will look daft if I delete it now.

    I also think that the ironic smiley is the one with the winking eye, but I refuse to be a party to irony about Iron Mike, the man is a defensive colossus.

  19. AndyMac says:
    November 1, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    “Cant be sure where and when but I have an image of Willo in my mind hacking away at a ball dropping into the box and missing it !”

    And that’s the image that will not go away, no matter what else he does.

    AndyMac says:
    November 1, 2012 at 8:41 pm

    “Newcastle United Style – Long balls”

    Quelle surprise !!!!”

    Aye, stats are always correct when they support our existing prejudices. ;-)

  20. Mike Williamson does look very old fashioned. He wouldn’t have looked out of place as a half back in the days of Milburn and Robledo. He’s like a photo of someone’s grandad as a young man.

  21. Feel a bit guilty, had power, cable and phone service, throughout, but lost on line service, strange.

    The major damage was caused by flooding, subway and road tunnels, plus the fact many hotels, hospitals etc. had emergency generators located below street level.

    Things are getting back to normal, with bridges and tunnels re-opening and limited subway service, of course we have had limeted bus service for a coupla days.

    Nice to see my local deli, with stacks of freesh baked breads and other goodies, mail service and all the things we take for granted.

    However there’s a hell of a job ahead to rebuild, certainly along the coastal communities.

    Strange the number of cell phone relay stations that were knocked out, most from a lack of power supply.

    A reminder of how easily we can become left helpless and how dependent we have become on having a constant power supply.

    NY has had it’s problems prior to Sandy, but mostly due to heavy snow falls or hurricane force winds winds, but never from flooding, which means there will have to be full scale changes to combat any future events of this nature.

    The only emergency i can remamber of a similar nature were the various blackouts over the decades.

    I was a bit concerned about riding in the elevator, but who wants to walk up and down eight flights of stairs.

    Ok back to football to-morrow!

  22. What a load cak!Hes a liability ,His poor positioning cost us Games.how man times has he launched the Ball straight to the oppersition when Not under pressure in pen Box.?

  23. workyticket says:
    November 1, 2012 at 3:27 pm
    UTD111 says:
    November 1, 2012 at 3:05 pm

    “I’m off to change me Fantasy League Team!”

    Who do you have ATM Utd?
    _______________________________

    Rafael, Mertesacker, Cole and Santon

    I tend to go light on defenders so I can have Tevez, Suarez and Van Persie up front…..

    Williamson isn’t rated by the Fantasy Premier League stats – he’s only scored 12 points all season??

  24. Good to see you back Chuck. I thought you’d have had a grouch about Williamson by now though. You’re obviously not back to your old self yet.

    Good to see you back too UTD, how’s your blog gannin’?

  26. Just reading some interesting stats from E-soccer’s news now.

    They support the claims of many commenters on this blog.
    That we and sides like S’Land, Stoke, W/Ham and Villa are primarily long ball clubs.

    There are stats to prove it (of course we can’t apply these stats to clubs with new managers, who we know, (much to our chagrin) dictate the style of play).

    What exactly do these stats indicate, well first it confirms a lot of what i have to say about managers.
    Being most all of those playing that direct style are from the UK and generally older individuals, 50 +.

    That plus the most successful of the long ball clubs is
    (the exception to the rule) Everton and of course NUFC with a fifth place finish , last season.
    Though i put that down more to having talented players, than Pardews input.

    I suggest you check the article out, though i personally dont encourage the statistical side of football, it does and should play an important role in any managers oversight.

    It will i suspect following this season, reflect that the recent introduction of a younger group of managers , who play a more modern possession based game and certainly more in common, with the game played on the continent.

    Of course there’s the spectators point of view, whats more exciting than the English game , with it’s physical nature and the speed it’s played at, as opposed to a slower game, more tactical in nature, but not quite as exciting a spectacle.

    I fear the game is gradually changing in the EPL, with the introduction of so many players from outside the UK.
    That plus the ref’s have gradually applied different standards, mostly the standards of continental Europe, which has brought about even more changes to the game as we knew it.

    But football continues to evolve like life, so get used to it.

  27. iron mike is nowt more than a back up,abit ov cover for Colo or Saylor.aye he does a job when when he comes in but like most ppl im nervous wiv him in the starting XI.
    away from the toon for a moment,i for one just cant see Clattenberg been as stupid enough to racially abuse Mikel.i dont believe it at all.

  28. i dont know where they get these stats from, the bloke is a liability, most of the time.
    jack 72, the only reason i would call him iron mike, is because he is also an inanimate object, that doesn’t move.

  29. TROJAN RECORDS 73 says:
    November 2, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    “jack 72, the only reason i would call him iron mike, is because he is also an inanimate object, that doesn’t move.”

    Well he obviously gets up in the air a bit Trojan, as he wins more than twice as many aerial duels as any other player in the team. He also makes more clearences than any other player.

    It’s also interesting that “Toonarmyelite” has “lost count” of the amount of times he has been nutmegged, as his figures for being dribbled past are lower than any of the other defenders, and lower than any of the other regular starters apart from Demba Ba, a striker. He also makes more successful tackles than any of the other defenders, though Cabaye, Gutierrez and Tiote make the most.

    One point that no one else seems to have raised is that his skills and Coloccini’s are actually very complimentary and they make a good combination in the centre of defence.

  31. Some Geordie expert on another site writing about this story asserted authoritively that whoscored’s stats are inaccurate, suggesting that this was the only reason why Williamson was rated so highly. They come from OPTA :lol:

    Why are supposed Newcastle United fans making things up to try and make one of the team’s own players look bad? What is wrong with the bastards?

  32. Not really Williamson’s fault he just launches the ball forward. Watch our back line in any game, every single one of them is hesitant on passing the ball to the midfield, even though we usually play with two deep lying midfielders. They always look for a long ball because they are instructed to by Pardew.

  33. David Pleat said in our last match that he thinks Williamson and Coloccini are our best partnership.

    Maybe, possibly…

    But this is David Pleat who said this. Though I probably shouldn’t knock the bloke, seeing as if Pardew ever did get sacked, Pleat or someone very similar would be his replacement.

  34. workyticket says:

    “Some Geordie expert on another site writing about this story asserted authoritively that whoscored’s stats are inaccurate”

    Got em talking about it though. Remember what i said earlier this week about writing any old tosh and releasing it into cyberspace just like all the others :)

    Good to hear you’re OK Chuck (even if NYC isnt) now the battle lines can be redrawn twixt the two of you :lol:

  35. Jimbob says:

    “Not really Williamson’s fault he just launches the ball forward. Watch our back line in any game, every single one of them is hesitant on passing the ball to the midfield”

    I agree JB we’re running on empty in terms of confidence so who isnt going to hoof it just to get it out of their personal zone ?

    Pardwho’s job is to get players feeling confident enough to play a mix of passes, long, short or crossfield when the occasion warrants it.

    However 9/10 they’re so shlt scared of fecking up that they choose the safe route. Which is why we’re being labelled “Long ball exponents” when even Stoke are doing their best to relinquish that title :(

  36. BTW we’re off to friends tonight but whatever time I get home I’ll start the RBD’s preview so it’ll be fresh on your laptops tomorrow morning – if WT can be bothered to get his finger out :)

  37. Jimbob, We usually play with a deep lying everything, waiting to hit their forwards on the break, so we can send some mortar fire up to Big Demba, Big Papiss or Big Sho

    David Pleat must be right as he agrees with me. Goes without saying. ;-)

  38. AndyMac says:
    November 2, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    “BTW we’re off to friends tonight but whatever time I get home I’ll start the RBD’s preview so it’ll be fresh on your laptops tomorrow morning – if WT can be bothered to get his finger out”

    Andy, it takes longer than you think to edit those stories, correct the mistakes and finish off all the missing stuff, especially the little formation pics which take far longer than the bigger ones generated on football formation sites. I’m not going Friday night without sleep again. They’re too late and it’s f*cking up my weekends. I want at sleep at normal times like everyone else.

  41. worky, if you keep chipping the ball towards a statue, eventually the ball will bounce off it’s head, lol.
    he is okay in the air, he’s just s***e on the deck.

    worky, could this blog not be more open ended?
    instead of writing articles, all the time, could a poster not just pose a particular question, and open up a new thread, a bit like they do on footymad?
    the only time you could write, would be to do match previews for forthcoming fixtures, just a thought…

    concerning sundays trip to hell’s kitchen, we’ll never get a better chance to beat the bin dippers, at the shoe box, which is klanfield.
    the bug bear as usual will be how, pardiNOla approaches the game.
    whether he is positive, and gives it a go, or reverts to type, and tries to contain them, then hit them on the counter, with his aerial bombardment of dresden style.
    if he does the latter, i cannot see liverpool getting beat, as bad as they are.
    which would be a shame, because this is a winnable game.

  42. TJ says:

    “concerning sundays trip to hell’s kitchen, we’ll never get a better chance to beat the bin dippers, at the shoe box, which is klanfield”

    Great minds think alike TJ ! My match preview says the same thing and if Swansea can do it then we should be able to if Pardwho engages brain and gets it out of “neutral”.

  44. TROJAN RECORDS 73 says:
    November 3, 2012 at 1:10 pm (Edit)

    “he is okay in the air, he’s just s***e on the deck.”

    Trojan, I seem to recall that most tackling is done on the deck? I also seem to recall that Williamson is rather good at that.

  45. worky, his problem is he’s too slow, and never seems to be in the right postions, when we give goals away.
    granted when there’s anything in front of him, most centre halfs can tackle, but for me he gets left for dead too much, for my liking.
    collicini isn’t the quickest, but he makes up for that with his awareness, and football brain, williamson looks clueless at times.

  46. when ever i see williamson’s name on the team sheet, i fear the worst.
    most of the people i know, haven’t got any time for him.
    maybe we are blinded by our critisism of him, that we are not seeing his merits, who knows.
    maybe he looks too much like david beharrell.

  48. Could it be by chance just about everyone commenting on Williamson, think of him as a waste of space, with a collective groan emenating everytime his name is pencilled in a a starter.
    Of course there’s always, the excepton to the rule,come devils advocate, come awkward barsteward, who constantly defends him, guess who ?

    Oh that will cheer him up Swansea’s record signing has just tied up the game against Chelsea, of course nothing to do with Rodgers, all about Laudrup.
    Four minutes to go in extra time, Swansea have given the European champions a game to-day, remind me of Barca.
    with clearly the better football.
    Not looking forward to facing this side.

  49. Bad news

    Spuds U21’s and U18′ thrashed their Geordie counterparts 6-0 and 4-1.

    Good news

    Makems fail to score yet again and lose at home to Villa. Falcons win at Bedford in the Championship battle of the top two.

  50. Just read on another site that the US TV deal has been renegotiated for a lot more money with NBC. This will have the effect of getting even more cash to the fat man but also cutting Murdoch out of the picture. I have been sending Murdoch $10 a month for the last 10 years to watch “Fox Soccer”, so this is good news for me.

    NBC has a designated free sports channel so I think there will be a lot more exposure for the premier league and NUFC here. Look for more US pre-season tours of the US.

  51. That’s good news, GS. Would love for NUFC to make it to Denver. They got fairly close last year… Kansas City, but that’s a 20 hour round trip drive and the game was on a wednesday so I wasn’t able to make it to the match.

  52. Andy’s match preview is posted now.

    Aye GS, I was reading about that. Not sure if it’s a good thing as you know what these Yanks are like. :-) If too many of them get into it they’ll start telling Septic Bladder it must be in four quarters instead of two halves for advertisers, there must be cheerleaders and so on…

  53. Worky: it is great that Murdoch spent his time and money to build the EPL brand and then gets outbid. This is a brand new pure sports channel for NBC so they are following the Murdoch model, on a much smaller scale. He built his Fox Network over here on the back of a deal for the NFL rights (sound familiar).

    Unfortunately, I just realised I will probably still pay the Dirty Digger as Fox still have the Champions League.