Overheard after the game at WHL Saturday “Spurs get loads of possession, Defoe is always offside, Spurs don’t convert their chances and we need another striker who can convert chances and score goals. Simple as.”
The Guardian ran an entertaining article on Saturday focusing on the top three teams in the Premier League and how effective their strike forces were by focusing on their shooting accuracy. The same day POTL’s useful ITK round-up (thanks) generated several replies stating “I deal in facts”. Facts are subjective and there are, of course, lies, damned lies and statistics but after another frustrating game against Aston Villa (28 shots; BBC match report, 15 shots; Sky report - damned statistics) I started to wonder whether Spurs create more frustration by not converting their chances than other teams.
Sky provide a few Opta statistics (see http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11662_2705370,00.html). According to these Spurs have the third highest number of shots (325 - Chelsea 424, Man U 333) and the fourth highest number of shots on target (144 - Chelsea 187, Scum 156, Man U 149) - We are top four.
Sadly, the relative number of goals created from all this activity is poor. In terms of goals per shot we are seventh (13.8%, Scum 19.4%, Man C 18%, Man U 16.8%). In terms of goals per shots on target we are even worse – eighth. 31.3% of Spurs shots on target end in a goal (Scum 38.5%, Man U 37.6%, Villa 37.3%).
The bad news is that it is getting worse. We converted a lower proportion of our shots in the last 12 games (and this includes the Wigan game where we had 28 shots; same as the Villa game at the weekend) than in the first 13 games of the season. Before jumping to conclusions built on ‘facts’ (or is it damned statistics?), it is worth noting that Chelsea are worse than Spurs for converting goals per shot (13.7%) and goals per shot on target (31%). I suppose their supporters’ frustration is eased by the fact they are rather higher in the table than we are.
Do the statistics prove anything? Probably not and I had doubts about posting this article, except for one thing. Defoe is always offside (38 times - most in the Premiership), but I knew this frustrating fact already.
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The Guardian ran an entertaining article on Saturday focusing on the top three teams in the Premier League and how effective their strike forces were by focusing on their shooting accuracy. The same day POTL’s useful ITK round-up (thanks) generated several replies stating “I deal in facts”. Facts are subjective and there are, of course, lies, damned lies and statistics but after another frustrating game against Aston Villa (28 shots; BBC match report, 15 shots; Sky report - damned statistics) I started to wonder whether Spurs create more frustration by not converting their chances than other teams.
Sky provide a few Opta statistics (see http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11662_2705370,00.html). According to these Spurs have the third highest number of shots (325 - Chelsea 424, Man U 333) and the fourth highest number of shots on target (144 - Chelsea 187, Scum 156, Man U 149) - We are top four.
Sadly, the relative number of goals created from all this activity is poor. In terms of goals per shot we are seventh (13.8%, Scum 19.4%, Man C 18%, Man U 16.8%). In terms of goals per shots on target we are even worse – eighth. 31.3% of Spurs shots on target end in a goal (Scum 38.5%, Man U 37.6%, Villa 37.3%).
The bad news is that it is getting worse. We converted a lower proportion of our shots in the last 12 games (and this includes the Wigan game where we had 28 shots; same as the Villa game at the weekend) than in the first 13 games of the season. Before jumping to conclusions built on ‘facts’ (or is it damned statistics?), it is worth noting that Chelsea are worse than Spurs for converting goals per shot (13.7%) and goals per shot on target (31%). I suppose their supporters’ frustration is eased by the fact they are rather higher in the table than we are.
Do the statistics prove anything? Probably not and I had doubts about posting this article, except for one thing. Defoe is always offside (38 times - most in the Premiership), but I knew this frustrating fact already.
Edited to remove HTML code