Adam Wharton has had a particularly difficult start to life under Pierre Sage. The England international simply doesn’t look like himself. 

We released a piece a few weeks back which criticised Wharton’s contribution when Palace are out of possession, and that point is only beginning to ring more true. 

His profile comparison to the midfielders that Sage had with him at Lens was also a key point. 

TikTok football analyst Archie Corbett released a video which summarised the exact statistical issues arising with Wharton’s season so far, and it prompted a piece assessing the Palace man’s season and a discussion around what needs to happen for things to improve. 

Wharton isn’t a good enough defender 

In extremely simple terms, Wharton is not good enough defensively for Pierre Sage’s system. Under Glasner, Palace played expansive, counter-attacking football which relied on fast transitional play through midfield, highlighting Wharton’s biggest strength, his passing. 

Under Pierre Sage however, there is a far greater demand on the midfielders to control the game when Palace are out of possession, and there is in fact a sole responsibility on them to win the ball back. 

Palace fans more generally will tell you that Wharton has struggled so far this year, but why actually is that, and how has a player of his calibre and contribution suddenly become a passenger in the side?

Sage’s system relies hugely on being good out of possession. Last season in Ligue Un, RC Lens led the league for tackles, interceptions and they were third for pressing numbers behind AS Monaco and PSG. 

Mamadou Sangaré, who signed for Brentford in the summer, was a huge part of this, as was his consistent midfield partner Adrien Thomasson. Why? They’re both extremely strong out of possession midfielders. 

It could be easy to suggest that claiming Wharton is not good defensively is somewhat of a swinging statement, however the numbers back it up clearly. 

He averages just 1.75 tackles per game, 1.02 interceptions and 0.29 blocks, placing him in the bottom 50% of all Premier League players.

More worrying is that he’s in the bottom 18% for overall defensive contributions, and the most damning statistic, Wharton lies in the bottom 13% for recoveries. 

These numbers match the eye test too. On far too many occasions does he fail to track back or follow runners into the box. Palace conceded twice against Brighton from this exact scenario, and it’s one of those things where once it’s highlighted to you once, you’ll never stop noticing it. 

Wharton jogs, he rarely sprints, and whilst he covers a similar amount of ground to his Crystal Palace teammates, especially starting partner Quinten Timber, he’s making on average 5.5 less sprints per ninety minutes. 

That demonstrates a clear lack of intensity to his game, and when you dig deeper, the comparisons don't favour him whatsoever. 

Sage has lost a lot of reliability from midfield 

What stands out glaringly when you look into the underlying numbers this season is not necessarily the comparison between Wharton and Sage’s former options at RC Lens, but more so the comparison between Wharton and his Crystal Palace teammates.

Firstly, at Lens, Sage had the privilege of coaching Mamadou Sangaré, now of Brentford fame. Sangaré was one of the best statistical midfielders in the world last season, averaging a mammoth 8 recoveries per game across all competitions. 

Adrien Thomasson was a great partner for him too, supporting well with the defensive work, whilst Andrija Bulatović acted as the young option off the bench, the third choice, and Wharton’s numbers are closer to his than either of the starting duo. 

In fact, even when compared to his current Crystal Palace teammates, Wharton is some way off when it comes to recoveries.

It has felt since he signed for Palace that for all of his positive attributes, Wharton is far too easy to bypass in midfield, and once you’ve done so, he rarely gets back in, which the numbers show clearly. 

Palace have conceded the most touches in their own box per game this season, with 35.71, significantly worse than Hull City’s 31.14 who are in second place. 

Whilst arguments can certainly be made for the performances of the back three, it is evident that there is little by way of protection in front of them. 

But is this just how Wharton has always played, is it a system issue or is there something wrong that we might not know about? 

To answer those questions, the first thing that needs to be done is to compare Wharton’s stats this season to, well, Wharton’s own stats from previous seasons too.

Whilst his interceptions and blocks per game have increased very slightly, his contribution elsewhere has taken a drastic decline. Significantly less tackles and recoveries per game, but more damning than any other stat is the number of sprints. 

Going from 13 sprints per game to just shy of four a game is a truly stark difference. It suggests an underlying fitness issue, or perhaps, but far more unlikely given Wharton’s character, a lack of effort. 

He still remains one of the standout young midfielders in both the Premier League and the world, and a couple of below par months are not going to change that, but improvement is needed, and Wharton will undoubtedly be the first to agree with that. 

Wharton is a fantastic player, and he’s still incredibly young with a huge future ahead of him. But in the short term, he needs to improve defensively, because his lack of contribution is having a detrimental role on Sage’s system.