Pictured in this graph: what xG does to a motherfucker.
I thought this graph was super interesting as it is a near-perfect illustration of when data analytics and advanced statistics started to enter into football (2014-2016) and some of the effects it’s had on the game.
EDIT: Forgot to paste a link to the complete article.
Has the average distance of shots resulting in a goal also decreased.
This, I’d be so interested to see average goal distance plotted on the same axes.
The original article didn’t have that plotted, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t follow this line fairly closely.
I’d be more interested to see a graph of the proportion of outside-of-the-box shots scored over the years. Has it gone up, because people are only taking good long distance shots now and fewer random potshots? Or had it gone down because good players mostly know to avoid them and bad players are bad at scoring them?
The original article didn’t have that plotted, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t follow this line fairly closely.
Well my logic is that long shoots were always low xG attempts so even when players were attempting more long shots, the goals were originating mostly from shots inside the box. Since it is only long shots that have decreased in number, I expect the average distance of a shot resulting in a goal to hardly see any decrease