Oh's Challenge

With Giorgos Giakoumakis leaving, I thought I’d share the numbers on goals and expected goals (xG) per 90 minutes. The Greek scored 26 goals in 52 appearances and was an excellent fit for the requirements of a striker in Ange Postecoglou’s system.

Fanfare over, here it is (data from this season – all competitions):

Note this included all non-penalty goals and xG only.

Giakoumakis was racking up close to one xG per 90 minutes although he was scoring at the rate of 0.77.

It will be fascinating to see if Kyogo Furuhashi can maintain his trouncing of xG numbers, a continuation of his data from last season. Despite xG of 0.69 per 90m, he is scoring at 0.93 goals per 90m. And people say he misses a lot of chances!

Liel Abada continues to perform more like a striker than a winger when it comes to scoring and xG.

Of the wingers, this season’s more assertive Daizen Maeda is matching Jota for xG although both are outperforming that.

The midfield sees Turnbull getting a long shot streak going and the attendant xG overperformance that brings.

Matt O’Riley continues his remarkable run of zero goals despite attempting 67 shots!

Both Sead Haksabanovic for the winger’s union and Reo Hatate from the midfielders are light on goal threat in comparison to their peers.

But, in summary, Giakoumakis leaves quite a hole but the recruitment has been unerringly smart so far and another well-chosen player whose attributes match the spec may emerge in Oh Hyeongyu. As we have seen above that is quite a challenge for the youngster as the player he is replacing was arguably at the peak of his game albeit in a “super sub” role.

Challenge accepted!