-
The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
I am very wary of stats showing how good its been, simply because it has no influence on what is to come
Opta have something on strikers in Europe this year:
OptaPro
OptaPro
lol i was joking when i suggested all you do is sit at home reading opta.
Hey look at that, Harry Kane doesn't even exist.
Harry is having a very, very good year while giving everyone else a head start of about 8 games.
I guess his xG count is lower than 12.0. Which I'd have thought they'd have highlighted somewhere, considering that he's scored 20 league goals, like they do for Falcao and Mbappe.
So according to Opta, Harry Kane is just a three-season wonder...
Ted Knutson had a point about this earlier this year. Harry Kane has significantly exceeded what xG models suggest are normal results from his shooting (particularly from range) for 3 years. While you can get into arguments about sample size, at some point, reasonable people are going to have to conclude that Kane is abnormally talented at shooting from range, and that models aren't going to fully capture that.
He is a wonder, but it's not of the seasonal kind.
One of the flaws with stats like these...
The xG stat is going to be reflected by the area of the pitch in which the shot was taken more than the quality of the shot. So, understandably, a lovely long-ranger like Kane's against Everton is going to be quite a low xG.
Where I feel it doesn't pass the eye test is that a player of much lower quality than Kane may find themselves in the box taking shots from apparently more 'dangerous' areas but without the power/quality to put them away - stacking up a high cumulative number of expected goals. It can also be affected heavily by the style of play the striker has - Aguero is a lot nippier and more likely to dribble into the box and take a shot from closer range than Kane who often gets his shot away quite quickly.
However, watching the matches, I do feel confident whenever Kane gets the ball on the edge of the box that he's got a damn good chance of scoring (see Stoke), or at least testing the keeper.
TLDR: I hate statistics that take one thing into account as a variable and then overanalyse the shit out of it.
The stats provide a useful guide, in terms of what generally are sound processes. You want to be creating shots closer to goal, you want to be limiting that for the other guys, you want to not try to cross a lot, etc. But each team has its own blend of players and you need to figure out how to use their talents.
For Spurs, that means that as much as it worries me, we will shoot a ton from range/odd locations because we have 3 guys who seem to be abnormally good at that (Kane, Eriksen and Son). It's in a way, a competitive advantage for us, as it makes us much less predictable than the average team. It's very hard to replicate though, as finding 3 Champion's League quality attacking players who are also freakishly good at scoring from those places is not something easy to do.
Last night:
record point tally for an EPL season - 74 (77 is the overall)
record goal scored for season in the EPL - 69
record wins per season in the PL - 22
8 consecutive league wins for the first time since...1961 (we had 11 then+2 from the end of the 1960 season to bring us to 13).
record point tally for an EPL season - 74 (77 is the overall)
record goal scored for season in the EPL - 69
record wins per season in the PL - 22
8 consecutive league wins for the first time since...1961 (we had 11 then+2 from the end of the 1960 season to bring us to 13).
126% possession last night . Is that a premier league record?
Shame Dembele went off, I wanted to break the 130% barrier.