Why Sheffield United must sharpen their shooting to climb the Premier League table

Beating a big-name Premier League team like Everton should really go down as a season highlight, but at the time, Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder wasn’t so convinced.

He called the clash a ‘ridiculous game’ and marked the match down as his team’s worst performance of the season.

If you look at the underlying statistics, he might just be on to something.

Wilder was right in saying that the Blades can play better than the Everton match, as they actually create more chances in near-enough every single Premier League game they play.

You may have spotted the expected goals (XG) statistic on Match of the Day recently.

XG uses an algorithm to measure how many goals a team is likely to score based on the chances they have created. So, in a one-sided hammering, the dominant side would likely post a high XG, and the weaker side would likely have a low XG.

Football isn’t played on a spreadsheet of course, and XG isn’t foolproof, but it is a very useful tool that can help to establish the quality and quantity of chances that a team creates.

Curiously, Sheffield United’s XG total of 0.51 against Everton was among the lowest they had recorded all season, yet is one of only two occasions on which they have scored two goals in a Premier League game.

As a result, the Blades have only scored seven goals so far, when their XG of 9.06 says they should have scored more this season.

The game at Goodison Park was an exception to the rule, as it was a rare occasion on which the Blades put away their chances.

Four of their seven goals have come in two games against high-profile teams, and in those two games the Blades were ultra-efficient and overperformed their XG by nearly three goals overall.

The Blades now need to improve their efficiency in the games where they are creating higher numbers of chances – the games against their bottom half rivals.

For an example, take the agonising 1-0 defeat to Southampton at Bramall Lane.

David McGoldrick came desperately close to giving Sheffield United the lead from a teasing Oliver Norwood delivery in the first half, with the score still level at 0-0.

After the point-blank miss by McGoldrick, several more chances were wasted, and a disallowed Oliver McBurnie goal also failed to give Sheffield United the lead.

The home side created enough for an XG of 1.88, yet failed to score a single goal. Ultimately, they lost a crucial game, the type of which they will need to win in the future if they are to stay in the Premier League.

In the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, Sheffield United also posted an XG of 1.88, and with the chances created, should really have scored another to make life more comfortable for themselves.

As a bigger picture, Sheffield United’s XG numbers aren’t ground-breaking – with limited resources they are far from the most creative team in the league, and do rely quite heavily on set-pieces.

That said, their numbers against the mid-table Premier League teams show that with better finishing, they could claim wins on a regular basis.

This point is illustrated by the fact that Sheffield United have a higher XG than Leicester City, who are challenging for a Champions League spot and sit all the way up in 4th place.

It is hugely impressive that the Blades look solid and organised enough to keep established Premier League sides at bay already, and you’d imagine Wilder will be happy to sit in 13th place at this stage.

We’ve all heard pundits claiming in their pre-season predictions that Sheffield United would struggle as they are ‘not the most glamorous’ in the Premier League.

In reality though, the stats show that far from being a limited side that is under the cosh week after week, Wilder’s men are capable of playing on the front foot against a number of Premier League teams, and with a little sprinkle of the clinical efficiency shown in the Everton game, could rise higher in the Premier League table.