Meyler's Influence

At a press conference this week, Roy Keane was asked about David Meyler. His former manager was impressed with his recent performances for Hull City, saying "It's no coincidence that every time I see Hull and they're winning games, Meyler's playing for them. He wasn't involved as much during their relegation but he was on their promotion team and he's back now and they're winning games and Meyler tends to be in the team."

Let's take a look at the influence Meyler has on the Tigers' results since signing for them on 8th November 2012, initially on loan before being made permanent the following January. In that time, Hull have played 146 games across all competitions - league, league cup, FA Cup, and UEFA Cup.

Of those, Meyler has started 97 of these games, leaving 49 games where he didn't start.
Hull won 40 of the 97, drew 18 and lost 39. Of the games where he didn't start, Hull won 15, drew 16 and lost 18.

Laying this out in a table, we can see that Hull are more likely to win if Meyler starts, far less likely to draw, and strangely slightly more likely to lose if he starts

	P	W	D	L
Started	97	41.2%	18.5%	40.2%
Not Started	49	30.6%	32.6%	36.7%

Finally, Keane is correct, Meyler did play less in their relegation season, 2014-15, only starting 19 of their 38 league games!