“The right flank changes the sums”

Twenty games with both; eight without one. Vigo’s season so far has split sharply around José Antonio Rojas and Arturo Torre, the pair on the right flank whose presence has accompanied a strong run and whose absence has coincided with a struggle.

With both playing, Vigo have won 11, drawn six and lost three. They score 1.2 goals a game and concede 0.7. Without one of the pair, they have drawn two and lost six, scoring 0.4 a game and conceding 1.5. The first set gives Vigo more than a win every other game; the second gives them no wins at all.

The change is not a matter of a narrow improvement. Vigo score three times as often with the pair together, while conceding less than half as frequently. The difference in each rate is 0.8 goals a game, in opposite directions. A right flank has become a rather persuasive place to begin when explaining why Vigo’s results look so different.

Today’s count shows the gap plainly: the games with Rojas and Torre together have supplied all 11 victories in the comparison. The games without one of them have supplied none.

There is no need to make the figures claim more than they do. They do not say that the pair alone decide every result, or that the other players cease to matter. They do say that Vigo have been a far more effective team with these two sharing the right flank: more goals going in, fewer going against them, and a record of 11-6-3 rather than 0-2-6.

Torre joined Vigo from U.D. Alzira in 2059 for £0.1m. The figures he and Rojas have produced together are unusually consistent in one respect. Vigo have looked strong with both available, and struggled when one is missing.

For a team whose right side has already drawn attention this season, that is less a fresh mystery than a particularly clear answer. Twenty games together: 11 wins. Eight without one: none. The sums are not subtle, and Vigo’s season has not been subtle with them.