When considering the merits of Elyounoussi (More Mo?) a stat that stood out was his 64% On Target Shot Conversion rate – very high. What can we tell about shot selection and accuracy?
I have mapped Shot Accuracy (simply the % of all shots from that player that are on target) with xG per Shot. The latter is the average Expected Goal value of each shot attempted – the higher means that the player is shooting from more promising positions and / or situations.
Elyounoussi is indeed an outlier. He is more or less alone in the bracket of players who take shots from promising positions, yet with relatively poor accuracy. Despite this, 64% of the shots that do make it on target go in! I think this is probably a combination of taking shots from good positions intrinsically, and some good fortune that a high proportion have gone in. He also has a lot of shots blocked so there is something here about either technique deficiency and / or poor shot taking decisions.
The other outlier is Ntcham which is a critical bugbear of mine. A player of great intelligence and technique when passing, his shooting decisions are often poor as this data highlights. He has by far the lowest xG per shot and the lowest accuracy of the attacking players. Gonnae no dae that….
Another outlier of interest is Rogic who tends to take shots from optimistic ranges and angles, but is at least more accurate than Ntcham with it.
The virtuous quadrant includes high scoring contributors Edouard and Forrest. These metrics are indicators of decision making and execution quality and it is no surprise to see the pair with 44 goals up there. Pleased to see Griffiths also who sometimes overreaches on his shooting but remains deadly accurate on occasion.
This should be a useful view for the squad in terms of sharpening shot taking decision making.