It’s still probably the best, simple metric for assessing a team’s quality at a glance. At the end of the day it shows you how well a team creates goal scoring opportunities and how it prevents goal conceding opportunities, everything else is down to shot stopping and finishing (in theory).
I think it’d be mostly fair to say it shows who ‘plays the best football’, less whether a team is actually effective at playing football.
Is there a difference between playing good football and playing effective football? Is a team that creates a lot of chances and can barely finish any of them any better than a team that creates few chances but can normally finish them?
It’s not just down to shot stopping and shooting. It’s also about the quality of the assists and the position of the defence.
I still agree it is the best simple metric to predict how teams will perform over a season. VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga for example will probably finish really high. I would bet top 6.
Absolutely, though aren’t assist quality and defensive positioning both factors that influence xG and xGA? That’s kind of my thinking when saying why it’s a good metric.
It’s still probably the best, simple metric for assessing a team’s quality at a glance. At the end of the day it shows you how well a team creates goal scoring opportunities and how it prevents goal conceding opportunities, everything else is down to shot stopping and finishing (in theory).
I think it’d be mostly fair to say it shows who ‘plays the best football’, less whether a team is actually effective at playing football.
Is there a difference between playing good football and playing effective football? Is a team that creates a lot of chances and can barely finish any of them any better than a team that creates few chances but can normally finish them?
It’s not just down to shot stopping and shooting. It’s also about the quality of the assists and the position of the defence.
I still agree it is the best simple metric to predict how teams will perform over a season. VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga for example will probably finish really high. I would bet top 6.
Absolutely, though aren’t assist quality and defensive positioning both factors that influence xG and xGA? That’s kind of my thinking when saying why it’s a good metric.