View: One worrying stat shows how lucky West Brom have been this season
One key stat shows how West Brom have been overperforming in front of goal in the Premier League this season.
Statistics gathered by The Athletic show that the Baggies have scored more goals this season than they should have.
The goals – expected goals statistic, (G-xG), shows whether a team are over or underperforming in front of goal based on how many goals a team has scored minus their xG rate over the season.
As you can see above, West Brom have averaged a goal a game this season in the Premier League, scoring six goals. But the Baggies’ xG is 0.45, meaning Albion should’ve scored less than three goals in their six league outings.
There are two ways this stat can be interpreted. Either Albion are massively underperforming and are getting lucky with how many chances the attack takes, or, the Baggies have been very clinical and that bodes well for the rest of the season.
Unfortunately, we think it is the former. Albion have created very little in front of goal this season and it has been individual moments of quality that have resulted in goals, not flowing, passing moves that have been worked on in training.
Grady Diangana’s goal against Everton is a prime example. The winger picked the ball up before dribbling 30 yards and sticking the ball past Jordan Pickford. It was undoubtedly a great goal.
But it came from nothing and Albion can’t rely on individual moments of quality if they want to remain a Premier League club. More effort needs to go into carving out chances for Karlan Grant and Diangana, who has been fairly quiet since scoring at Goodison Park.
The Baggies travel to Craven Cottage on Monday night to face a poor Fulham side. This is the perfect opportunity for Albion’s attack to really test a defence this season and score a few goals. Let’s hope West Brom can win comfortably and improve this worrying G-xG stat.
In other West Brom news, Bilic has opened up on contract negotiations with one of his star players.
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