That Sorba Thomas’ touch has been poor has been plain to see, and the numbers back it up. Last season he was successful in 44% of his dribbles; this season, it’s just 10%.
His number of unsuccessful touches per 90 minutes has also nearly doubled, from 2.3 to 4.0. Defensively, too, there has been a drop-off – possibly in part because he spent a long spell at wing-back last season before moving to the wing.
Even with that in mind, though, he is only committing to about a third as many challenges as last season (2.2 per 90 minutes vs 0.8) – though he is at least winning a slightly higher percentage of them (31.8% vs 37.5%).
This is not the first time we have seen Thomas go through a rough patch. After starting in scintillating form last year, he had a notable dip in form from around the middle of September through to the middle of December, with the odd good performance peppered in.