The numbers behind Michael Olise’s impressive season with Palace

After an injury slowed down his start at the club, Michael Olise has really stepped up and become a mainstay in Patrick Vieira’s system.

Highly-rated French youngster Michael Olise brought a lot of promise coming from Reading in the summer and joining a Crystal Palace side in transition.

He was a marquee signing in a summer of shrewd recruitment for the club. Olise arrived at Palace carrying an injury and that affected his minutes played in 2021, limiting him to just two starts and cameo appearances.

However, since the start of 2022, Olise has started to show Palace fans and the Premier League as a whole what he is all about.

 

Influence outside of goals and assists

Olise’s start against Man City was his fifth consecutive start for Palace since mid February and although he’s only had one assist in that time, his influence on the side extends well beyond mere goals and assists.

His assists per90 average of 0.46 is already hugely impressive and places him in the top two percent of attacking midfielders/wingers across the top five leagues.

Having only played 900 minutes thus far in the season, there is some consideration to be had with how much his numbers stand out in a small sample size, it is nonetheless quite impressive. For the season overall, Olise has managed to bag two goals and make five assists. Numbers from the Analyst tell us that only Trent Alexander-Arnold has averaged better quality of chances from open-play than Olise whose xA per90 average is at 0.25.

Goes without saying, Olise’s creative talents are hugely impressive and as long as his underlying numbers remain healthy, there is little to worry about in terms of the output.

 

Off the ball presence

Across the past three matches, Palace have come up against varied opposition in terms of the tactical battles. First against Burnley, then Wolves under Bruno Lage and of course, most recently Pep Guardiola’s Man City.

Olise started all of those games and showed that he works just as hard off the ball as he does on it.

Averaging 20 pressures across each of those games, Olise was active in his attempts to help his team win the ball back.

Palace enjoyed a great deal of possession against Burnley but had to remain patient against Wolves and even more so against Man City.

When comparing Olise’s numbers to the rest of his top five league peers, he sits in the top 25% of attacking midfielders and wingers for pressures attempted. Once again, another sign of his impressive work off the ball.

 

 

Becoming Palace’s main man

For the longest time, it seemed as though everything revolved around Wilfried Zaha at Crystal Palace. The Ivorian was by far their biggest player and was definitely the star man at Selhurst Park.

All that is changing now with the likes of Olise and Conor Gallagher. The Chelsea loanee has been a breath of fresh air in Vieira’s midfield but ever since nailing down his spot in the starting XI, it is Olise who has started to become the team’s catalyst in possession.

When looking at non-penalty xG + xA, which is a good proxy for a player’s overall expected output for the team, Olise is fourth in the side behind their three senior strikers. Averaging 0.39 npxG+xA is by no means outstanding but it is certainly a figure that’s expected to improve for Olise given his quality performances.

It is also quite telling that Palace are able to benefit from Olise’s ability on the ball in transitions given that he is third for progressive carries in the side with 106, just behind Jordan Ayew(119) and Zaha himself(177).

All in all, Olise is at the right club for his development at the moment and away from the spotlight at Palace, he can improve the parts of his game that were lacking in the Championship and take that next step in the Premier League, in the seasons to come.