First up, cumulative points so far. For a while, it was a back and forth exchange of leads between the two but for the past 2 weeks their points totals have matched identically. Kinda like two waves cancelling one another out, if you're feeling poetic.
Thusly, the average points so far is exactly identical at 1.29
And much the same is reflected in the main graph. So, Rodgers is still outperforming Roy's final average by 0.04 points (hurrah) but at this point of the season, even Roy was outperforming Roy by that much.
Last week, Rodgers reached his peak for the season so far, at 1.38 average points on the season. This was above King Kenny's average for the entire full season in charge by 0.01. May or may not be interesting to know, but 17 games into his full season, Dalglish had 30 points and an average PPG of 1.76 for the season (which should let you realise how BADLY he slid towards the end of his 'reign').
Hodgson's record to follow in weeks 18, 19 and 20 of his fateful time in charge were LWL. So, Rodgers will need 4 points over the next 3 games to get a better average than Hodgson had at Liverpool. Luckily, these games for LFC will be against Fulham (H), Stoke (A) and QPR (A), all eminently winnable fixtures. Well, you'd have thought that about Villa, wouldn't you?
Anyway, enough rambling. Extrapolating the current average:
Points at end of season maintaining this level of performance: 49
Maximum points obtainable: 85
'interesting' extra analysis: Last week, Rodgers made headlines for claiming that 2nd would be a possible finishing place for the season after their 2 game win streak. (Incidentally, I wonder if the same was claimed during Hodgson's stewardship at the 16 game point, considering he would have had the exact 2 game win streak and same points total / average?)
Last week, Man City, the team in 2nd place, had 33 points after 16 games. This is an average of 2.06 points per game. Extended over an entire season, this form would net them 78 points. So, to fulfill this claim of obtaining second, and assuming 2nd place is 78 points (it's a horribly simplistic assumption in purely statistical terms which makes me, as a financial analyst, cringe, but whatever), Liverpool would have needed 56 points over their next 22 games, a rate of 2.54 average ppg! So, cold hard numbers should let you know that it was a bit of an optimistic claim to make. Possible of course, but not very likely.
Apologies for missing last week. I promise it wasn't because of some bias against graphing Liverpool wins, it's just because I was mostly drunk and busy.
Really?
