Leicester’s September stats reviewed: attack part 1

The entire theme of this article can be summed up in two words – vast improvement. In almost every area I had pointed out as a possible cause of concern in my previous article, Leicester has significantly improved their metrics.

Leicester City Shooting

The Foxes scored 11 goals in September, from 73 shots out of which 20 were on target. While they had one of the lowest shots on target percentage (shots on target / total shots) with 27%, Leicester proved to be the most clinical team with regard to the amount of goals scored per shot on target (0.55). On average, every second shot on target for the Foxes resulted in a goal.

Expected goals (xG)

Leicester had a total xG of 4.9 in August, the eight lowest in the league. This was a cause of concern as a low xG signifies lower quality goal scoring opportunities. In September, Leicester accumulated an xG of 11.7, the highest in the league. This equates to a xG of 2.3 per game as compared to an xG of 1.2 per game last month. To summarize, Leicester have created much better goal scoring chances for themselves in September, the best in the league.

Diving a bit deeper into xG, Leicester’s seven goals came from shots which had an average xG of 0.14 – a relative low number signifying a low probability of those shots resulting in goals. This points to either extremely good finishing or slight luck for the shot taker in the form of a goalkeeping error. The Post Shot xG (PSxG) is a metric which takes the final position of the ball in the net into account before calculating the probability of that shot resulting in a goal. This is identical to the Expected Goal on Target (xGOT) mentioned in my August review. The average PSxG of the seven August goals was 0.39, implying luck rather than high quality finishing.