Ibisevic.. leading the early Hoffenheim charge


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15 points down on the season to date. This weekend's selections:

Saturday
Everton-Liverpool 0-0 10.50
Hannover to beat Bayern Munich 7.40
Norwich to beat Barnsley 2.74
Stockport to beat Cheltenham 2.80
Walsall to beat Carlisle 2.52
Wycombe to beat Bury 3.30
Barnet to beat Grimsby 3. Click to continue reading...

League Two -- Individual Points

Player Team Goals Assists G+A Shots Thorne Brad 8 1 9 19 Saunders D&R 5 4 9 19 Ellison Chest 5 2 7 26 Lowe Chest 2 5 7 17 Benson D&R 4 2 6 17 Clarke Darl 5 0 5 11 Colbeck
Brad
1
4
5
11
Strevens D&R 3 1 4 14 Elder Brentf 3
1
4
16
Parkin Luton 3
1
4
19
Richards PVale 3
1
4
14
Reid Roth 3
1
4
14
Williamson
Wycombe
3
1
4
5
Davies
Shrews
2
2
4
15
Boulding
Brad
3
0
3
14
MacDonald Brentf 3 0 3 9 Morrell
Bury
3
0
3
8
Ward
C'field
3
0
3
31
Gill
Exeter
3
0
3
9
Jackson
Gillingham
3
0
3
27
Morgan Alder 2 1 3 5 Soares
Aldershot
2
1
3
15
Sodje
Bury
2
1
3
3
Martin
Luton
2
1
3
15
Burgmeier
Darl
1
2
3
5
Curtis Morecambe
1
2
3
10
Rodgers P Vale
1
2
3
14
Spence
Wycombe
1
2
3
3
Hamshaw
Notts Co
0
3
3
6


League Two -- Shots

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James.. 18 hour COD4 session before Man City game?

The quality shot metric is a useful tool for analysing goalkeeper performance. It rewards keepers who face a greater percentage of close range shots and penalises those who face a succession of hopeful long range efforts.

Scott Carson is one notable beneficiary of more accurately assessing the type of shots keepers face. Click to continue reading...

Goal Attempts Created

Player Team Attempts
Created
Arteta
Everton
17
Lampard
Chelsea
13
Crouch
Portsmouth
13
Denilson
Arsenal
12
A.Young
Villa
11
Adebayor
Arsenal
11
Downing
Boro
11
Fabregas
Arsenal
10
N'Zogbia
Newcastle
10
Keane
Liverpool
10
Rooney
Man Utd
10
Kuyt
Liverpool
9
Aliadiere
Boro
9
Bullard
Fulham
9
Greening
WBA
9
Davies
Bolton
9
Alonso
Liverpool
9
Benayoun
Liverpool
9
Zaki
Wigan
8
Geremi
Newcastle
8
Morrison
WBA
8
Noble
West Ham
8
Delap
Stoke
8 Click to continue reading...

Further to last Thurday's opening gambit on shot quality, here are the initial shot quality tables for this season's Premier League. The breakdown is fairly self explanatory, apart from the final column - 'Quality Shots per Game'. A quick explanation of how this is calculated:

Examining where goals are scored from, I discovered that shots taken from inside the six yard box are about twice as likely to result in a goal than shots from elsewhere in the penalty box. Click to continue reading...

Two points down on the season after a midweek washout. Prices in bold taken from betfair at 5PM:

Friday
Hannover to win at Leverkusen 6.00

Saturday
Hull/Everton - Any unquoted scoreline 14.00
Watford to beat Reading 3.25
Hartlepool/Oldham - Any unquoted scoreline 13. Click to continue reading...

Stephen Clemence...*facepalm*

A sunny day in early August. Leicester's first game with Martin Allen in charge is at home to Blackpool. Half an hour gone. 0-0. A Blackpool clearance falls to Stephen Clemence. He's 30 yards from goal. The crowd at the Walkers Stadium, almost as one, scream "Shooooot". Click to continue reading...

The Champions League group stages get underway tonight. The success of English clubs in recent seasons is undeniable but have oddsmakers have gone overboard in their evaluation of Premier League sides?

There are certainly some sizeable prices chalked next to the names of their opponents. Two that interest me the most are Bordeaux and Villarreal. Click to continue reading...

FO hero Jonny Brain

Weekend Wager summary -- Despite the ignominy of Gillingham's freakish 7-0 defeat at Shrewsbury it was a satisfactory first week for FO's bets. A one point stake on each of the 15 selections returned an overall profit of approximately four points. Hats off to Macclesfield goalie Jonny Brain who put behind him a dreadful start to the season, keeping out 24 Bournemouth attempts and landing a FO a 4/1 winner. Click to continue reading...

Chris Iwelumo...perennially undervalued striker



Shot Differential

Team Shots
For Shots
Against Shot_Diff League
Position
Norwich
70
34
+36
17
Swansea
65
42
+23
10
Derby
74
57
+17
20
Burnley
56
39
+17
19
Blackpool
76
65
+11
12
Wolves
72
61
+11
1
Cardiff
56
48
+8
8
Southampton
68
62
+6
23
Watford
48
42
+6
11
Preston
64
59
+5
3
Coventry
61
60
+1
13
Sheff Wed
50
49
+1
6
QPR
55
58
-3
4
Notts Forest
48
51
-3
21
Birmingham
47
51
-4
2
Ipswich
61
66
-5
15
Doncaster
43
51
-8
14
C Palace
46
56
-10
18
Sheff Utd
57
69
-12
7
Bristol City
59
73
-14
5
Reading
51
67
-16
9
Plymouth
47
69
-22
24
Barnsley
45
67
-22
22
Charlton
45
68
-23
16


Shot Efficiency

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Shot Differential

Team Shots
For Shots
Against
Shot_Diff League
Position Lyon 82 37 +45 1 Bordeaux 87 52 +36 10 Marseille 80 57 +23 2 Rennes 78 55 +23 13 St Etienne 82 63 +19 18 Sochaux 79 69 +10 19 Nancy 57 49 +8 14 Lille 66 60 +6 15 Lorient 58 54 +4 17 Nantes 62 63 -1 20 Monaco 47 54 -7 7 Le Mans 44 54 -10 5 Toulouse 43 55 -12 8 Caen 72 86 -14 9 Auxerre 57 71 -14 12 Valenciennes 63 83 -20 11 PSG 50 71 -21 3 Nice 53 77 -24 6 Le Havre 57 82 -25 16 Grenoble 42 68 -26 4

Shot Efficiency

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For me the initial raison d'etre behind collecting and analysing football statistics was to help my football betting. I reasoned that shot statistics would be especially useful in identifying which teams had been unlucky and therefore underestimated by the oddsmakers. As time went on I became more interested in what the data revealed about teams, players and strategies, rather than using it as a predictive tool. Click to continue reading...

Fryatt...gratuitous Leicester picture #1



Shot Differential

Team Shots For Shots Against Shot_Diff League Position Leeds Utd 87 45 +42 6 Peterborough 82 47 +35 12 Leicester City 55 27 +28 3 Oldham 56 39 +17 1 Walsall 67 52 +15 10 Huddersfield 52 47 +5 17 Tranmere 48 43 +5 13 Brighton 45 40 +5 8 Millwall 35 31 +4 7 Northampton 38 35 +3 20 Bristol Rovers 56 55 +1 15 Hereford 61 65 -4 21 MK Dons 52 56 -4 5 Swindon 47 52 -5 11 Hartlepool 42 47 -5 14 Colchester 24 30 -6 16 Southend 52 60 -8 22 Leyton Orient 57 66 -9 9 Yeovil 39 50 -11 19 Carlisle 52 66 -14 2 Stockport 32 51 -19 18 Crewe 63 84 -21 23 Scunthorpe 49 75 -26 4 Cheltenham 52 80 -28 24


Shot Efficiency

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2007/8 Review

Everton enjoyed another very good season under the stewardship of David Moyes, flirting with Champions League qualification for much of the campaign before finishing fifth. This was despite Everton allowing opponents more attempts on goal than they themselves created. The Toffees were able to overcome this imbalance thanks to some very sharp finishing from their strikers, dead ball prowess, and excellent goalkeeping from American Tim Howard. Click to continue reading...