The Stats Thread

[parklane1]

It's not exactly gonads, but it gets completely misrepresented and misused. People use it to suggest quality chance creation or general dominance, when in reality, it's a measure of shot quality and finishing.

An xG of 0.25 simply means that, on average, a shot taken from that position is scored 1 in 4 times. Add in the fact that it's a cumulative stat, and you could have 25 shots with a total xG of 1.0, or 3 shots with that total xG of 1.0. Quite clearly, the latter are far better chances, but the raw cumulative number doesn't tell you that.

I say it's more of a benchmark for finishing because what you're really supposed to do is compare your total xG against how many goals you actually scored. Son and Kane were elite finishers, as the eye test clearly showed and funnily enough, when you look at their data, they consistently outperformed their xG. Raw xG just isn't telling the story most people seem to think it is.

Through the FA i have worked in football at most levels over the years and had stats shoved in front of me and others like me. Stats at best are nothing more then a tool which on occasions can be useful but more often are not worth the paper they are written on.

Sadly in todays game so many fans look at stats like a bible, in truth they can/could be a useful tool but generally they are just overused and misunderstood. But each to their own i guess.