Hibs showed an efficiency in chance taking

There are probably as many clichés and quotes about statistics as there are actual statistics but WeKnowSFA want to kick off this analysis with the best stats quote ever;

In football, the most important thing is the final result but that is not necessarily a true reflection of the game. An example of this would be the Hearts v Celtic match at Tynecastle on Sunday.

Hearts fans won’t care about how they got the three points, they got them but on any other day, its likely they would have lost out.

Celtic, who played with ten men for an hour had 17 efforts on goal compared to Hearts 7.

In fact, the Jambos only managed to get three efforts on target but with two of them flying beyond Artur Boruc, they had enough to win the game.

Put simply, it doesn’t matter how many chances you create, its making them count. Celtic are playing better attacking football than Gordon Strachan’s team managed last season. However, many will argue that Strachan’s team would at least have grabbed a draw in this game, even after Loovens horror show.

To put it into a wider context, WeKnowSFA has looked at all 5 SPL games from the weekend.

Unsurprisingly, Rangers created the most chances at the weekend, 21 efforts in total against a hapless Motherwell at Ibrox. The following chart shows the number of shots each team managed at the weekend, please click on the chart to view it full-size.

Rangers and Celtic making the most chances won’t be a surprise to many Scottish football watchers, although Falkirk and Kilmarnock coming next may raise a few eyebrows.

As stated with Celtic though, it’s not the making of chances, its the taking of them.

The following chart shows the percentage of chances taken,please click on the chart to view it full-size.

Hibs scored with two-thirds of their chances at Pittodrie, making for a ruthlessly efficient away victory. Yogi’s boys in green and white only had three efforts but a 2-0 win in Aberdeen is not to be sniffed at.

Aberdeen and St Mirren never scored but of the teams who did notch, Celtic had a scoring ratio of 5% of their chances.

With Scott McDonald, Giorgios Samaras and Marc Antoine Fortune all getting game time at Tynecastle, the wages earned by these players should be returning a better ratio than that.

The Celtic defence are giving their fans nightmares but the strikers should be doing more to ensure victories as well. With the likelihood of the backline losing a goal being relatively high, Celtic need to score at least two or three to win a game (which wasn’t enough in Falkirk or Vienna). They are making more than enough chances but they need to turn these chances into goals.

Rangers have shown in recent weeks that you can turn chances into goals, 9 in their past two games, and if Celtic can’t keep the pace, they may slip further behind in the title race.

As Hibs proved, if you keep it tight at the back, you don’t need to make a multitude of chances, if one chance leads to one goal, it could be enough to win a game.

However, the underlying issues beneath the stats should definitely give some managers food for thought as they prepare for the games in the Festive season?

Do you agree with Ebbe Skovdahl about stats?

Related posts:

1. SPL hot-shot strikers head for double figures Boyd blank narrows the gap at the top Kris Boyd...
2. Hibs on the march again at Pittodrie John Hughes has to be the Scottish manager of 2009...
3. Enjoyment the word at Celtic Park Tony Mowbray’s bhoy’s hit the heights. It was the last...
4. Loovens loses it for Celtic Defensive mishaps cause Celtic to drop points again. Andy Hinkel...
5. SPL Round-up – Sat 28th Nov 09 Its not often there is a full Saturday fixture list...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.