75% aerial duels won: The 2020 signing who is starting to come good for Blackburn Rovers | OneFootball

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Football League World

·16 September 2021

75% aerial duels won: The 2020 signing who is starting to come good for Blackburn Rovers

Article image:75% aerial duels won: The 2020 signing who is starting to come good for Blackburn Rovers

It has been a promising start to the Championship season for Blackburn Rovers.

Tuesday night’s 2-0 win over Hull City means that Tony Mowbray’s side currently sit eighth in the Championship table, with 12 points from their seven league games so far this season.


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One player who has been a significant part of that early season success for Rovers, is Daniel Ayala.

Having arrived last summer to much expectation, Ayala endured a hugely disappointing debut campaign at Rovers, where fitness issues limited him to just ten appearances across the course of the 2020/21 season.

This time around however, the Spaniard appears to have turned a corner at Ewood Park, seemingly emerging as a key figure in Tony Mowbray’s side.

But just how good has Ayala been for Blackburn since the start of the 2021/22 campaign?

Here, we put the spotlight on some of the stats behind Ayala’s performances so far this season, in order to get a clearer answer to that question.

Article image:75% aerial duels won: The 2020 signing who is starting to come good for Blackburn Rovers

The first thing to notice about Ayala’s performances for Blackburn this season, is that he has been an ever-present in the XI for league games since the start of the campaign.

That means that the centre back has been on the pitch for 693 minutes this season, which is just 153 minutes less than played during the entirety of last season (846), despite the facts we are only in mid-September, an apparent indicator of his significantly improved fitness levels this season.

It is also noting that his influence during his time on the pitch, appears to have increased considerably as well from the 2020/21 campaign to the current one.

Since the start of this season, Ayala has scored his first two goals for the club, both of which have been important openers in the wins away at Nottingham Forest, and at home to Hull.

Both of those goals have seen the centre back head home from set pieces, and the air is one place where Ayala has excelled for Blackburn this season.

So far in 2021/22, Ayala has won 75% of his aerial duels, which equates to three out of every four, which makes his a big asset for Rovers both when it comes to defending balls into his side’s penalty area, and as has already been mentioned, attacking them from set pieces to help get Blackburn on the scoreboard.

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Interestingly, Ayala has shown a significant improvement in that area, and a greater willingness to compete in the air as well. Despite playing fewer minutes so far this season, Ayala has already matched his tally of 72 aerial duels from last season, and whereas this time around he has won 75%, he had a success rate of just 54.2% in that area during the 2020/21 campaign.

Meanwhile, with an overall defensive duel success rate of 60%, only marginally down on a percentage of 61.5% from the previous campaign, Ayala has certainly become a useful option for Rovers when it comes to shutting down opposition attacks.

Indeed, that suggestion is further backed up by his average of 4.81 interceptions per game this season, up from an average of 3.94 the previous campaign, another sign that Ayala’s ability to read the game, and take matters into his own hands when it comes to dealing with loose balls.

Meanwhile, with a pass success rate of 87%, again fairly similar to his percentage of 89.7% last season, Ayala also remains a reliable option for Rovers on the ball when in possession, and one who can help them play out from the back, barring some loose passes in the aforementioned win over Hull earlier this week.

It seems therefore, that for all the frustration there was around Ayala and his struggles to make an impact last season, it appears that if he can maintain the form he has has shown in the early part of the current campaign, then the Spaniard may yet prove to have been worth the wait for Rovers.

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