By Ed Valentine
Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals for Manchester United. Only one of those goals was scored from outside the box. Arguments were made by some fans saying that Henry was better in terms of all round game and could do more in more midfield areas of the pitch. Other fans claimed that the mark of a striker was the ability to get in free positions at close range and hit the target. Henry’s influence seems to have evaporated over the years as the current Arsenal squad has scored 19 Premier League goals between them in 2014-15 - all of these have been from inside the box as the graphic below displays.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals for Manchester United. Only one of those goals was scored from outside the box. Arguments were made by some fans saying that Henry was better in terms of all round game and could do more in more midfield areas of the pitch. Other fans claimed that the mark of a striker was the ability to get in free positions at close range and hit the target. Henry’s influence seems to have evaporated over the years as the current Arsenal squad has scored 19 Premier League goals between them in 2014-15 - all of these have been from inside the box as the graphic below displays.
The next graphic shows where Arsenal has created chances on the pitch. Over half have come from the area in front of the 18 yard box but no goals have been scored from this position.
37% of the 19 goals have been low centre indicating that they are tap ins from about 6 yards. This would give rise to the idea that the ball arrives at the goal scorer’s feet from a pull back at the bye line.
Arsenal’s shot accuracy for the 2014-15 season. Less than half of the attempts have hit the target.
In the next post I will look at Goal Probability Added (GPA) - a metric which is becoming increasingly important and looks at a player’s actions over their career and how much those actions increase or decrease the chances of the team scoring when they are on the pitch.
Data courtesy of Opta
Data courtesy of Opta
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