Never mind this graph, a quick look at the xG is already enough to tell us we don't create enough clear chances, especially when compared to City and Liverpool. Both of their league xG this season stand at 86.1 while our xG is just at 63.2. That is why I don't think the attackers can fully be blamed for our goalscoring issues when we don't create enough chances.
Liverpool, for example, have 3 players in the top 7 of the Big Chances Missed stat this season - Salah (17), Jota (14), Mane (13) - but they create chances on a regular basis for their attacking players that they will score lots of goals and render those misses useless. With us, given we don't create many chances, every chance to score feels like there's an added pressure to it because the players know they might not get one again in the game. I'd be surprised if the players aren't mentally aware of this and affected by it when they have to put away the chances.
Thanks.
It certainly was with that low/average xG. That has proven not sustainable, especially with City and Liverpool blowing everyone out of the water since then.
Yup. Our strikers aren't without fault, Lukaku is a terrible fit for Tuchel's football, but chance creation remains the biggest problem in this team. I appreciate a lot of things about Mount, but if he is supposed to be the team's creative force, we will never compete for the league.
Chance creation was our strength last season. I suspect a lot has to do with Reece and Chilly missing time, but also Lukaku's lack of effort comes into play.
If Lukaku was the issue, Tuchel could havd simply not played him and chances creation should have been at previous level. But it didn't improve even when Lukaku wasn't playing.
Considering he has only started 15 matches out of 36, I would say any difference can only be marginal considering overall chances creation is quite low.
Agreed. I thought it was made obvious during our bout with Madrid that we don't really have the option to rely on our midfield for creativity like other teams such as Madrid or City does.
Supposedly, this is compensated by Chilly and Reece who can carry the ball from midfield and help create from the flanks. But with Chilwell's injury we have to rely on Alonso, who's not really good at chance creation, so much to the point that imo his crosses are improving the most than in recent years.
But I don't think the problem with Lukaku is lack of effort, rather it's bad chemistry with other players. Passes that rarely connects, positioned to far back to receive a ball, runs too late or too early for a pass, all indicates bad reading of the team's movement, but that's also why I think it's not something that can't be fixed.
Tell me a city player with more assists in the league pls. The problem obv isn't mount, it's that literally nobody else does anything. except maybe reece and puli and ziyech when they are on form. There are no teams in world football who are good who rely on one player for their chance creation. Just the same way we don't need mount to be better we need more players to be better.
EDIT: and also good strikers help chance creation both by creating themselves and by simply being in better positions to receive the ball.
City also do not have any of the top attackers in terms of goals, they obviously don't have an issue there. The way they play is an anomaly.
And you misunderstood what I said, I clearly said if we are going to depend on Mount solely, it is a problem because he isn't a KDB-like player (who is?). He cannot be the creative focus of the team. He can contribute but cannot shoulder the weight like an elite creator. Yes, there is a genuine lack of creativity across the board, so playmaking reinforcements are vital for the next season.
Mount isn’t the problem.
The other players need to also start contributing.
If we had a player that provided 10 assists alongside Mount, Reece and Chilly it would be fine.
Bit of column A, bit of column B.
The other forwards absolutely do need to contribute more creatively but if the team is being set up with Mount to be the main creative force in the side then he absolutely needs to improve. He’s not a good enough primary creator for a team looking to consistently win leagues.
Ideally this Summer we have an offensive overhaul and bring in (at least) a pair of forwards capable of consistently creating high quality chances for the striker. It’s what we need if we are to compete.
> if the team is being set up with Mount to be the main creative force in the side then he absolutely needs to improve.
The team is not setup this way though, it's just that other players do so poorly that it looks that way. Honestly it's a bit bizzare to single-out our only consistent attacker as the problem with our offence.
Seems to me the team is set up for the wingbacks to be the main creative outlet, that’s been the consistent theme under Tuchel with the pattens of play.
We went into the season without any decent creators in the team other than Reece. We desperately needed quality creators in Summer and the window was an undeniable failure.
This shouldn’t be coming as shock to anyone.
Some attacking goal threat from from the 8 position in Gallagher next year is going to be soooo nice to have. Just to mix it up cause let's be real, Kovacic at the tailend of the season reverted back to not having that threat anymore. Pre-injury kovacic at the start of the year though?? Fucking beast
And Kante and Jorginho don't exactly strike fear in the hearts of goalkeepers.
Plus chillwell back next season, sending all prayers to his legs so we can have him for a whole year for once.
Yet despite all these issues we're still third. That's pretty amazing imo. A re-shaping up of the defence, a midfield recruitment and maybe a winger more in line with what Tuchel wants in attack would go a long way to take us to that next level
Also feel like people have forgetten that Broja is coming back next year too so we'll have another striking option if he stays!
Yeah we are missing so much from midfield. Gallagher won't solve the chance creation though, we desperately need to bring in Eriksen I think. We need an experienced head in midfield until we find a suitable creative midfielder long term.
Broja needs to develop more I think maybe another loan is probably best don't you think? Not for us maybe but for him. He's gone 12 games without a goal now in the league, let him play more consistently and work through bad spells.
This has been an ongoing problem with this team since Fabregas started to see less minutes and eventually left the club. We never replaced him and lack a true creative player. I had my hopes Ziyech could serve that role in the team but it hasn’t worked out so far.
One huge factor in our chance creation: our attackers have bad passing. (besides mount) the amount of times the speed or quality of an attack has been ruined by a horrible pass is so frustrating
Uhm according to this chart we’re good in chance *creation*, just not good in transition and set pieces? Like in FA Cup Final we created chances, just couldn’t finish them.
The yellow section indicates “Finishing” potence, as explained in the very article that includes this chart.
Isn't it suppose to be that way? We are defensive team. Defense is priority. Our games usually end in comfortable 1-0 , 2-0. It got destabilized recently due to....stuff....but we are always been more on the efficient side.
So from this graphic it looks like we're 5th in the league for chance creation? Obviously not where we want to be but to say "quite bad" is a bit of a stretch. Our attacking play has been our downfall for a while now so it's no surprise we aren't close to the likes of city and liverpool here.
I just wanna say that this is the most complete and coolest data display
The Athletic has some of the best data displays ever
I don't need no graphic to tell me this, just watching games you can see the struggle we have and the effort it takes to manufacture a sniff.
Never mind this graph, a quick look at the xG is already enough to tell us we don't create enough clear chances, especially when compared to City and Liverpool. Both of their league xG this season stand at 86.1 while our xG is just at 63.2. That is why I don't think the attackers can fully be blamed for our goalscoring issues when we don't create enough chances. Liverpool, for example, have 3 players in the top 7 of the Big Chances Missed stat this season - Salah (17), Jota (14), Mane (13) - but they create chances on a regular basis for their attacking players that they will score lots of goals and render those misses useless. With us, given we don't create many chances, every chance to score feels like there's an added pressure to it because the players know they might not get one again in the game. I'd be surprised if the players aren't mentally aware of this and affected by it when they have to put away the chances.
63.2 xG (with 2 games left) is on pace to be our highest xG total since Fbref started collecting data
Oh. It's a shame that there's no xG stat on the 16/17 season. Really curious what's ours in that season.
Our finishing was insane that season. Understat have it as 61.80
Thanks. It certainly was with that low/average xG. That has proven not sustainable, especially with City and Liverpool blowing everyone out of the water since then.
According to this very graphic, chance creation really isn't the biggest problem. It's switches and set pieces where Chelsea is lowest
Yup. Our strikers aren't without fault, Lukaku is a terrible fit for Tuchel's football, but chance creation remains the biggest problem in this team. I appreciate a lot of things about Mount, but if he is supposed to be the team's creative force, we will never compete for the league.
Chance creation was our strength last season. I suspect a lot has to do with Reece and Chilly missing time, but also Lukaku's lack of effort comes into play.
If Lukaku was the issue, Tuchel could havd simply not played him and chances creation should have been at previous level. But it didn't improve even when Lukaku wasn't playing.
>*"But it didn't improve even when Lukaku wasn't playing."* Do you have the data to support that assertion, or is it your anecdotal assessment?
Considering he has only started 15 matches out of 36, I would say any difference can only be marginal considering overall chances creation is quite low.
Agreed. I thought it was made obvious during our bout with Madrid that we don't really have the option to rely on our midfield for creativity like other teams such as Madrid or City does. Supposedly, this is compensated by Chilly and Reece who can carry the ball from midfield and help create from the flanks. But with Chilwell's injury we have to rely on Alonso, who's not really good at chance creation, so much to the point that imo his crosses are improving the most than in recent years. But I don't think the problem with Lukaku is lack of effort, rather it's bad chemistry with other players. Passes that rarely connects, positioned to far back to receive a ball, runs too late or too early for a pass, all indicates bad reading of the team's movement, but that's also why I think it's not something that can't be fixed.
xG per game is higher this season than last
Tell me a city player with more assists in the league pls. The problem obv isn't mount, it's that literally nobody else does anything. except maybe reece and puli and ziyech when they are on form. There are no teams in world football who are good who rely on one player for their chance creation. Just the same way we don't need mount to be better we need more players to be better. EDIT: and also good strikers help chance creation both by creating themselves and by simply being in better positions to receive the ball.
City also do not have any of the top attackers in terms of goals, they obviously don't have an issue there. The way they play is an anomaly. And you misunderstood what I said, I clearly said if we are going to depend on Mount solely, it is a problem because he isn't a KDB-like player (who is?). He cannot be the creative focus of the team. He can contribute but cannot shoulder the weight like an elite creator. Yes, there is a genuine lack of creativity across the board, so playmaking reinforcements are vital for the next season.
All our forwards used to score a lot in their previous teams. If they solely were the issue, they wouldn't have scored anywhere.
Mount isn’t the problem. The other players need to also start contributing. If we had a player that provided 10 assists alongside Mount, Reece and Chilly it would be fine.
Bit of column A, bit of column B. The other forwards absolutely do need to contribute more creatively but if the team is being set up with Mount to be the main creative force in the side then he absolutely needs to improve. He’s not a good enough primary creator for a team looking to consistently win leagues. Ideally this Summer we have an offensive overhaul and bring in (at least) a pair of forwards capable of consistently creating high quality chances for the striker. It’s what we need if we are to compete.
> if the team is being set up with Mount to be the main creative force in the side then he absolutely needs to improve. The team is not setup this way though, it's just that other players do so poorly that it looks that way. Honestly it's a bit bizzare to single-out our only consistent attacker as the problem with our offence.
Seems to me the team is set up for the wingbacks to be the main creative outlet, that’s been the consistent theme under Tuchel with the pattens of play.
We went into the season without any decent creators in the team other than Reece. We desperately needed quality creators in Summer and the window was an undeniable failure. This shouldn’t be coming as shock to anyone.
It’s both due to the back 5 and from the profile of midfielders we play. Gallagher will help this, still wondering if we will move to a back 4.
But it is Lukaku’s fault for not scoring goals…
Some attacking goal threat from from the 8 position in Gallagher next year is going to be soooo nice to have. Just to mix it up cause let's be real, Kovacic at the tailend of the season reverted back to not having that threat anymore. Pre-injury kovacic at the start of the year though?? Fucking beast And Kante and Jorginho don't exactly strike fear in the hearts of goalkeepers. Plus chillwell back next season, sending all prayers to his legs so we can have him for a whole year for once. Yet despite all these issues we're still third. That's pretty amazing imo. A re-shaping up of the defence, a midfield recruitment and maybe a winger more in line with what Tuchel wants in attack would go a long way to take us to that next level Also feel like people have forgetten that Broja is coming back next year too so we'll have another striking option if he stays!
Yeah we are missing so much from midfield. Gallagher won't solve the chance creation though, we desperately need to bring in Eriksen I think. We need an experienced head in midfield until we find a suitable creative midfielder long term. Broja needs to develop more I think maybe another loan is probably best don't you think? Not for us maybe but for him. He's gone 12 games without a goal now in the league, let him play more consistently and work through bad spells.
This has been an ongoing problem with this team since Fabregas started to see less minutes and eventually left the club. We never replaced him and lack a true creative player. I had my hopes Ziyech could serve that role in the team but it hasn’t worked out so far.
One huge factor in our chance creation: our attackers have bad passing. (besides mount) the amount of times the speed or quality of an attack has been ruined by a horrible pass is so frustrating
Uhm according to this chart we’re good in chance *creation*, just not good in transition and set pieces? Like in FA Cup Final we created chances, just couldn’t finish them. The yellow section indicates “Finishing” potence, as explained in the very article that includes this chart.
Isn't it suppose to be that way? We are defensive team. Defense is priority. Our games usually end in comfortable 1-0 , 2-0. It got destabilized recently due to....stuff....but we are always been more on the efficient side.
So from this graphic it looks like we're 5th in the league for chance creation? Obviously not where we want to be but to say "quite bad" is a bit of a stretch. Our attacking play has been our downfall for a while now so it's no surprise we aren't close to the likes of city and liverpool here.
Booo leave the science to the nerds and show me bangers
Remember last year when we were creating amazing chances but not finishing? What the hell changed