2018 Fulham Player Profiles: Floyd Ayite

Basic Stats: 29 appearances | 24 starts | 5 substitutions | 1,738 minutes | 4 goals | 2 assists

Economics: £1.8 million Transfer Fee | Signed: 2016 | Contract Ends in Summer 2019 plus a 1-year option

Stats by Seven-Game sequences

WhoScored Rating Chart

Radar

Goals vs. Expected Goals

Transfermarket Value Chart

CC Thoughts: One thing that you know Floyd Ayite will bring everytime he steps onto the pitch is a workmanlike performance and a willingness to do whatever it takes for the team. Unfortunately for him, that will mean putting his body on the line a little too much to the supporters’ liking. This past season, Ayite missed a grand total of 12 games due to either a calf or hamstring injury followed by another four fixtures in which manager Slavisa Jokanovic did not even bother to put him on the matchday squad.

That being said, his attacking play was still strong even though there was no end product to them. His 4.20 combined key passes and shots per 90 minutes ranked fourth among Fulham players. In fact, it was Ayite’s highest rate of offensive contribution since his breakout 2013/14 campaign back when he was at Reims. Unfortunately, that only translated to just the four goals and two assists in the equivalent of 19.3 90-minute games. On average, that is 0.31 goals and assists per 90 minutes, and just a 7.4% chance that any attack with Ayite’s direct involvement becomes a Fulham goal.

That is much lower than the 15.5% involvement conversion rate he had last season in which Ayite had 9 goals and 7 assists. You may say that this was a step back, but you can also add that this was a bit of regression to the mean as his career involvement conversion rate is just 9.2%. It was just too good to be true to see the now-29 year old sitting tops in the club charts in goal scoring rate with 0.32 per 90 minutes in 2016/17. Add in the injuries that have been piling on Ayite, being forced to play center forward when Fulham had no one else to do the job well in the middle of the season and then the Mitrovic affect that took affect in February onwards, and it made sense for him to have the season he had.

So what is Jokanovic to do with Ayite in 2018/19? His guaranteed portion of his contract runs out after this season and he’ll be turning 30 years old playing in a league that will be much tougher to handle week-in week-out. It’ll be interesting to see if Jokanovic persists using him or finding a massive upgrade that probably will be required.

Key Stat: 4.6% of passes were of chance creating variety. Sure, attacking players don’t have that much volume on passes because they don’t get the same amount of opportunities with the ball at their feet as midfielders or defenders do. However, when attacking players do have the ball, they are expected to do the most with it. This is what makes the case that Ayite leading the club in this statistic is quite remarkable, especially since Lucas Piazon is second among Fulham players in this category at just 3.1%.

Your thoughts: If you were Jokanovic, Tony Kahn and the rest of the Fulham board, what should be done for a soon-to-be 30-year old with a year-plus left on his contract who played the least amount of league football in seven years and declined miserably despite doing so much for the good of the team? Should he stay or is time to cash in? Do you think Ayite will rebound after this season or is the Premier League just to hard of a league to find out that answer? Don’t be afraid to leave your thoughts on the comment section below.