Ryan Williams: The forgotten man in Oxford's attack

To say Ryan Williams returned to Oxford as a returning hero would be an exaggeration, but the Australian born winger certainly caused some excitement when he arrived from Portsmouth.

The former Oxford-loanee had plenty of League One experience under his belt and appeared one of the brighter elements of Portsmouth during the Jackett years.

Signing him on a free transfer seemed like a bit of a coup.

Less than six months later, though, and rumours of Williams returning to Australia were swirling around the January transfer market, and there wouldn’t have been too many Oxford fans struggling with the concept of pushing for promotion without him.

Due to no fault of his own, Williams has rather become the forgotten man of Oxford’s attack.

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Williams has played in 20 of Oxford’s 33 League One games this season, but has only completed ninety minutes on four occasions.

Nearly half (45%) of William’s appearances have been off the bench, and he played six minutes or less in five of those matches. 

Proportion of minutes played on the wing and number 10 for Oxford this season

Part of Williams absence can be attributed to injury, particularly earlier in the season, but now he is in danger of slipping out of contention altogether for Oxford.

Billy Bodin seems to have surpassed him as first in line behind Sykes, Holland and Whyte, so Williams is essentially now in contention with Henry for United’s fourth choice winger.

The arrival of Marcus Brown, who is now close to fitness, will push Williams down the pecking order again.

He probably didn’t envisage playing as fifth choice winger when he arrived in the summer.

It has not been for a lack of effort, though.

His stats actually make him out as one of United’s most creative players.

Ryan Williams is in the top ten for all League One players for Expected Assists per 90, a stat which measures the likelihood a player’s pass will result in a goal, and predicts how many assists a player should be getting.

William’s total of 0.19 per 90 minutes is joint with Gavin Whyte for the best at Oxford United.

League One's top creators by Expected Assists this season

Having played 908 minutes, Williams only just qualifies for that metric, and the number of substitute appearances he's made, usually when the game is opening up, benefit his creative stats.

Still, his creative numbers are surprising, but not unwarranted, given he has registered 0.2 assists per 90 - an assist every five games.

William’s 1.1 key passes per 90 is also above Sykes, Henry and Holland, although he does trail Bodin (2.2) and Whyte (1.8).

With this creativity, though, comes risk, and William’s tendency to give the ball away is perhaps a reason Robinson does not trust the Australian from the start too often.

Only James Henry (4.9) is dispossessed more on average per 90 minutes of Oxford’s six main wingers (Sykes, Whyte, Holland, Henry, Bodin and Williams), with Williams averaging (4.4).

It is also true that Williams does not have particularly noteworthy physical attributes.

He is not slow, but doesn’t have the burst of acceleration of either Whyte or Holland, nor the technical ability of Sykes or Bodin.

This can be seen by the fact Williams has averaged the least dribbles per 90 of all Oxford’s regular wingers. 

Total dribbles per 90 minutes of Oxford's wingers this season

Similarly, Williams is not able to get in the same goalscoring positions as his comrades, with the lowest shots per 90 of the six as well.

Total shots per 90 minutes of Oxford's wingers this season

The above graphs illustrate the explosive talent on the wings for Oxford and goes some way to explaining why Williams has not got the minutes.

Williams, unfortunately, has been caught between playing styles - not the best at running at players (that goes to Holland) but also not the strongest at building Oxford up through creative passing (Bodin or Sykes get that award). 

His lack of a natural fit in United's side is not helping his chances of breaking into the first choice eleven.

Williams versatility and hard work may also be working against him.

He filled in at Right-Back against Charlton earlier in the season, and his defensive capabilities have been clear from his numbers. 

The per 90 defensive attributes of Oxford's wingers this season

This hardworking nature is perhaps leading Robinson to bringing him on later in games, when he wants to close them out, or bring on fresh legs to reignite matches, rather than early on, where he has more match-winners.

Often you would see this theory reversed, with the hard-working Williams starting matches and then making way for the difference makers later, but it speaks volumes to Robinson’s style that he plays his most explosive assets from the off.

Williams has also struggled to nail down a single position, often flitting between the right, left and number 10 position.

He has played in five positions, but none for more than three full games.

The Australian’s performances have not been the cause of his struggles this year, and there is no evidence that Robinson has stopped trusting Williams, but it has not turned out as he would have anticipated so far.

The arrival of Brown will not lift his spirits either, and he has rather been a victim of Oxford’s surplus of options this year.

Williams’s hard-working attitude, experience and ability to create from nothing, though, means there could still be a role for Oxford’s forgotten attacker as the games come thick-and-fast towards the end of the season.