What this key stat tells us about Sheffield United top goal scorer Patrick Bamford
Patrick Bamford leads Championship charts for key goalscoring stat
Sheffield United striker Patrick Bamford currently has the best ‘expected goals per shot’ in the Championship with 0.33 - but what does that mean?
Essentially, this means that the 35-year-old has still got it. Although he doesn’t get close to the top of the league scoring charts, he makes the most of the small number of chances that he does get.
It must be noted that the former England international doesn’t get anywhere near as many chances as other centre forwards in the league, but he’s incredibly clinical in the chances that he does get.
Bamford’s expected goals per shot also indicates that when the former England international does decide to unleash a shot on goal, more often than not, it stems from a high-quality chance that leads to a higher likelihood of scoring - and the numbers don’t lie.
Despite scoring five league goals, he’s only taken 14 shots across his 11 appearances - that’s approximately a goal every three shots taken.
Only 50% of his attempts hit the target - equating to 1.6 shots per 90.
The Blades striker lands 0.8 shots on target per 90, but 71 per-cent of those on target lead to a goal.
He’s calculated and composed in the box, and picks his moments wisely. United’s top scorer is outperforming his expected goals by 0.44 at 4.56xG.
Bamford has impressively scored five goals from only seven shots on target - meaning per-cent of those on target lead to a goal.
If we compare key statistics with top goal-scorer Will Lankshear of Middlesbrough, he’s scored 11 league goals from 43 shots, 22 of which have been on target - leading to a shot conversion rate of 25.6 per-cent. That means he’s scoring from approximately half his shots that hit the target.
When both strikers are presented chances to score, they both measure up well, but the league’s top scorer is being fed chances so much more than the Blades striker.
This proves to be food for thought for Bamford’s teammates - the chances that the 35-year-old is being presented with are high quality; the quantity of these top chances needs to increase in order to get the best out of United’s experienced goal-scorer.