Pulling the Trigger- An Updated Look at Shooting Statistics

Back at the end of May, I put up a post looking at the shooting statistics for the team at that time. Since we are starting to head towards the end of the year, I thought the time was right to take a look at these stats again.

Shooting statistics are very interesting stats to analyse. You really have to break it up into three separate parts. First is the ability to get off a shot. Next is making sure that the shot is actually on frame. Finally, are the shot hitting the back of the net? You would think that the person with the highest percentage of on frame shots would have a best scoring rate. That is not always the case.

Take Emmanuel Adebayor from Tottenham for example. Last season he put almost 70% of his shots on frame. That is an extreamly impressive number if you just look at that number alone. But he only had 5 goals on the season. If you look at his shot chart nearly all his shots were in the center of the frame making it easier for a keeper to make a save. The placement of the shot is more important than just getting the shot on frame.

There is a lot of value to be found in looking at shooting statistics though. Below you will see the shooting stats that I track. I feel that it is important not to just see the total shots and shots on goal but to average it out over 90 minutes played as well (Sp90 and SoGp90). That gives us a better way to compare players that have not played as many minutes as others. I also like to see the shots on goal percentage to see how often players are putting their shots on goal, although as we saw above this doesn't tell us everything. The final column shows what percentage of shots taken actually hit the back of the net. Lets look at the forwards first:

Player	Shots	Sp90	Shots on Goal	SoGp90	SoG %	GpS %
Saborio	44	3.66	18	1.5	40.91%	22.73%
Findley	31	2.61	14	1.18	45.16%	19.35%
Plata	44	2.83	18	1.16	40.91%	6.82%
Sandoval	17	2.17	8	1.02	47.06%	11.76%
Garcia	29	3.14	12	1.3	41.38%	17.24%

So what does the above information tell us? The first thing that jumps out to me is that Saborio is by far our most aggressive forward. It is pretty amazing that he is leading the team in shots taken while only having played in 13 of 28 matches. He is also the most clinical of all the forwards when it actually comes to finishing his chances. Now one thing to consider in these numbers is that he has also scored three penalty kicks and those would inflate his numbers a bit.

Garcia is also a very aggressive player when he is in the match. Both his Sp90 and his SoGp90 are only slightly behind Saborio. Here is one thing to consider when looking at Garcia's numbers: Shots that hit the post/crossbar are not considered a shot on goal. There were multiple (at least four that I remember) times that Garcia has hit either the post or the crossbar. If those were considered "on goal" his numbers would be a lot higher.

For all the things that Plata does really well for RSL one area that he needs to improve upon is his GpS%. The good news is with 2 goals scored the past few weeks his percentage is starting to climb. But with the high volume of shots he has taken on the year, he needs to be scoring more goals.

Player	Shots	Sp90	Shots on Goal	SoGp90	SoG %	GpS %
Gil	30	1.66	13	0.72	43.33%	16.67%
Grabavoy	20	0.81	8	0.32	40.00%	25.00%
Morales	43	1.96	16	0.73	37.21%	16.28%
Velasquez	18	2.02	6	0.67	33.33%	0.00%
Stephenson	19	2.38	7	0.88	36.84%	5.26%
Beckerman	39	1.92	17	0.84	43.59%	10.26%
Alvarez	6	0.72	3	0.36	50.00%	16.67%

Here is a look at how the midfielders are doing. When I look at this, Beckerman's numbers really jump out at me. I would have never guessed that he would be among the team leaders in both shots and shots on goal. This is even more surprising when you consider the position that he plays on the team. Now his per 90 numbers are not as high so part of the reason for being among the team leaders is just the amount of minutes that he has played.

Grabavoy has been having an amazing year setting career highs in both goals and assists. He also shows very well in the stats above. It is impressive to think that one out of every four shots he is taking is hitting the back of the net. That is the best percentage on the team by far. Especially when you consider that he has not taken any penalty kicks to boost that number. It is crazy to think that he has 5 goals with only 8 shots on goal. I would love to see his shot chart. It would probably be opposite of the Adebayor shot chart from above.

What else can we learn from this data? Are you seeing any other trends that I didn't talk about? Let me know what you think.