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Sunday 8 January 2012

Mode of Scoring in the EPL 2010/11,Part 2.

Some more descriptive trivia from the 2010/11 season culled from the play data,the initial posts can be found here and here.This time concentrating on the minutiae of how the ball is actually put in the net and from where.Penalties have been excluded because they'll artificially inflate the percentage of goals from inside the box.They would also inflate the amount of goals scored by right footed players because they took proportionally more spot kicks than lefties last season.Overall,left boots score less goals than right ones because the EPL contains more predominately right footed players.


Left Foot and Match Ball.The second most popular scoring match up in 2010/11.

Proportional Method of Scoring in the EPL 2010/11.

TEAM. % Goals from Headers. % of Goals from Shots. % of Goals with Left foot. % of Goals with Right Foot. % of Goals Scored from Outside the Box. % of Goals Scored with Other Body
Part.
Arsenal. 12.3 87.7 32.3 55.4 6.2 0
AVilla. 28.6 71.4 26.2 45.2 14.3 0
Birmingham. 25.7 74.3 17.1 57.1 8.6 0
Blackburn. 25.6 74.4 41.9 32.6 14.0 0
Blackpool. 17.6 82.4 27.5 54.9 15.7 0
Bolton. 22.2 75.6 42.2 33.3 15.2 2.2
Chelsea. 19.0 81.0 27.0 54.0 11.1 0
Everton. 27.7 72.3 27.7 44.7 19.1 0
Fulham. 31.3 66.7 22.9 43.8 15.2 2.1
Liverpool. 15.4 84.6 17.3 67.3 9.6 0
Man City. 7.8 88.2 39.2 49.0 15.7 3.9
Man Utd. 23.6 76.4 25.0 51.4 8.3 0
Newcastle. 28.0 70.0 32.0 38.0 12.0 2.0
Stoke. 29.3 63.4 22.0 41.5 7.3 7.3
Sunderland. 22.5 72.5 27.5 45.0 12.5 5.0
Spurs. 20.0 78.0 40.0 38.0 30.0 2.0
W Brom. 18.9 79.2 26.4 52.8 11.3 1.9
W Ham. 23.7 76.3 23.7 52.6 13.2 0
Wigan. 10.5 86.8 42.1 44.7 23.7 2.6
Wolves. 23.8 73.8 40.5 33.3 11.9 2.4
League
Average.
21.3 77.1 29.8 47.3 13.5 1.5

Arsenal scored the vast majority of their goals on the floor and from inside the box,with only Man City and Wigan scoring a smaller proportion of their goals from headers.Leading scorer Van Persie netted just once from outside the box and strongly favoured his left foot.Walcott's entire goal haul came from inside the box,mostly with his right foot and almost all before the hour mark.

For Aston Villa,the versatile Bent did all his goalscoring inside the box and spread his strikes fairly evenly between his left foot,right foot and head.Winger,Downing was equally adept with either foot and six of his seven goals were the game's opening score.The team as a whole were well above average for the proportion of headed goals.

Tottenham scored the biggest proportion of their goals from outside the box in 2010/11,30% of non penalty goals coming in this way.Of Palyuchenko's double figure haul,just under half were from long range,Defoe didn't score a close range goal all season and more expected long range scorers such as Huddlestone also chipped in from distance.Spurs also scored half a dozen goals after the 90th minute,half of which broke a tie.All of van der Vaart's goals were important as they either enhanced a one goal lead,drew Spurs level or broke the deadlock.

Stoke netted almost 16% of their goals after the 90th minute indicating a reliance and insistence on fitness,an added incentive to stay until the final whistle and risk the gridlocked post game car parks .The Potters were just pipped by Fulham as the team who scored the biggest proportion of their goals from headers and they also scored the smallest proportion of goals from shots.They weren't very adept at scoring from distance as only Arsenal scored a smaller proportion of their goals from outside the box,so both teams favoured scoring from close range.But whereas Arsenal worked the ball into the box,Stoke launched it and picked up the pieces.A case of two polar opposite approaches producing very similar raw statistics.Jones was the only EPL striker to manage a goal with his head,his right and left foot and finally with "other body part".

Kenwyne Jones.A Full House of Goals in 2010/11.
Man City relied on Tevez for over a third of their league goals,almost all of them from his right boot,so their continued surge to the top has been impressive.Perhaps more remarkable though was their virtual absence of headed goals,all bar one coming from Lescott either at corners or set plays.Silva and Johnson almost combined to get into double figures and both used their right foot exclusively for standing on.City were amongst the least active goal scorers in second half stoppage time.

Champions Man Utd came pretty close to splitting their goals scoring along league averages.Hernandez,Rooney and Berbatov did the majority of their goalscoring inside the box.Given Berbatov's reputation for being laid back,it was impressive that he scored 60+% of his goals after the break.

Liverpool,led by Kuyt,Torres and Gerrard were the most right footed team in the EPL as well as being another team who were particularly effective once the ball was inside the box.Kuyt also scored the league's latest goal after 102 minute from the penalty spot,equalising a similar Arsenal effort four minutes earlier.

Similarly,Birmingham scored proportionally very few left footed goals and goals from outside the box were also rare.Gardener's eight goals from midfield were invariably scored in tight games and all came after the 50th minute.

Teams with a liking for headed goals also included Everton,mainly on the back of Cahill,who was much more dangerous with his head from open play than his customary threat from corners in 2010/11 and Fulham who shared the heading duties between Zamora,mainly from open play and Dempsey and Hangeland from set plays and corner kicks.

Wigan carved out an unusual set of numbers,but illustrate why small sample sizes can be misleading as future predictors.They were behind just Tottenham when it came to long range efforts,but direct free kicks accounted for a significant proportion of these strikes.They won't be guaranteed to get the same opportunities this year and the predominately left footed N'Zogbia definitely won't be taking them if they do.Rodallega was their short range goal poacher especially late in tight games.

West Brom's Odemwingie was perhaps the most versatile of strikers.Not only did he bag double figure strikes,but he was equally adept with either foot.He scored from open play,counter attacks and set plays,but wasn't a player you needed to be overly concerned about when the Baggies swung in a high corner.

If anyone wants a more detailed breakdown for a particular team just use the comments box and I'll see what I can do.

1 comment:

  1. Chelsea did always good scoring rating in the Barclays Premier League however, Man City is doing good on last season. Till the report for the EPL 2014-15, Chelsea is in the top of the form

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