Monday Morning Ammo – season stats

Presented without too much comment, The Pinch shares the stats that have shaped our season, and ultimately, Sheffield United's likely relegation.

Apr 08, 2024

These 25-or-so stats sum-up some of our season, giving you beautiful conversation-starters to share (or not) around the water cooler. Unless stated, the data is taken from FBRef.

With 16 points from 31 games, the Blades are — somewhat surprisingly — +2 points ahead of their tally for the same point in 20/21 (14 from 31), whilst we are -28 points behind the tally for 19/20 (44 from 31).
That 16-point tally winds up as 0.51 point-per-game. However, that figure improves to 1.5 when we take the lead in games and unfortunately worsens when conceding first to 0.17 or the equivalent of 6 points a season.
The Blades sit 20th of 20 in the PL for goals scored, goals conceded, average possession, clean sheets, expected goals, shots on target, accurate passes, accurate crosses, touches in the opposition box, corners, possession won in the final third and, of course, points.
Our best period in games is the 31-45 minute mark, where we have scored more (7) than we have conceded (6) all season. Our worst period has been 79-90 where we have scored 6 and conceded (checks notes again)...24.
At home, we have been leading at half time twice. The same goes for away. Whilst, altogether, we have been losing 48% of games at the interval — not hugely surprising.
We’ve failed to win back-to-back games all season and the Blades’ best 4-game run all season has seen us take 4 points — horrific stuff.
Sheffield United have conceded in 100% of away matches and have kept only one clean sheet all season (at home vs Brentford) with Wes Foderingham between the sticks — ouch!
Of course, we have also conceded the most goals in the league and that includes conceding 4.5+ goals in 25% of home games this season — so much for not leaving our chin hanging.
Wes Foderingham has conceded 59 goals in 2,198 minutes, stopping 64% of shots on target faced and conceding just about as many goals as expected (59 vs 59.34).

Ivo Grbic prevents fewer shots on average. The Croatian has conceded almost half a goal more per 90 (3.05 per game) than Wes Foderingham (2.58) – even considering a small sample size, that looks pretty shocking.

In fact, given that the expected goals against tally for Grbic is 10.19, it is pretty harrowing to see his goals conceded tally being 18 and not surprising then that we haven’t won a game with him in net.

Enough of the goals against already…

Only ten Sheffield United players (plus own goal) have scored in the Premier League this season — sign him up!
All six of top-scorer Oliver McBurnie’s goals have come at home, he is just shading his xG (5.78) and 27 of his 28 shots have come from within the box. He is also our only player to average more than one shot per game.

You’d expect most of his shots to come from inside the box, but surprisingly only one of his goals has come from a header. In fact, the Blades have only scored two headed goals in 23/24 — so much for the hoofball.
Despite that, no Blades player has won more aerial duels than Oliver McBurnie. On average he wins 7.72 per game, with the next best, Vini Souza, on 2.23 — we can’t replace that aerial presence easily if he leaves.
Likewise, we need Gustavo Hamer on form next season. With 3.17 shot-creating actions (SCA) per 90, he has been involved in the most actions leading to a shot for the Blades (46th highest in the top flight). He is also our top assist maker with 5 and has created the most big chances (8) — good to see him coming into his own just in time for the summer… oh!
Our most accurate passer hasn’t played very much. Oliver Norwood averages the most accurate passes per game (12 higher than next best Vini Souza) and also twice as many accurate long passes per game than the next best.
In terms of players who regularly start matches, a grand total of 0 of them win the ball in the opposition’s half more than once per game. The closest is Cameron Archer with 0.9 — oh to have an Iliman Ndiaye!

Let’s tackle the problem defence

With 13 interceptions, John Egan made more interceptions per game than any other player (2.41). The next best is Yasser Larouci with 1.49 per 90 — says a lot about those who are starting regularly.
Vini Souza has the most combined tackles and interceptions per 90 for us with 5.42 per game, well, other than Max Lowe who has made 5.68 per game, but he’s only started eight times all season.
Speaking of starts, no player has started more games (28) or played more minutes (2,591) than Jack Robinson — ole, ole — and he tops the list of 33 different players who have all seen minutes in the top flight this season.
It makes sense then that the player with the most touches this season (1,361) is also Jack Robinson.
No outfield player has made more errors (3) than Auston Trusty. Errors are actions leading to an opposition shot, so naturally, the highest is Wes, with 6.
Our most unsuccessful challenge-maker is Jayden Bogle, who has failed to tackle a dribbling player 38 times. Just behind him is Gus Hamer (36) and behind him is Vini Souza (30).
The player with the highest number of miscontrols is Cameron Archer with 50 from just 462 touches — whaaa, he miss controls the ball every ten touches!

How about some fun?

If you look at our net number of goals whilst a certain player is on the pitch versus the net number of goals conceded whilst they are off the pitch, you get a metric called “on-off” — for example, James McAtee has an on-off value of -1.11 points per game.
The best by this metric? Oliver Arblaster. Whilst he hasn’t started many, his on-off value is +2.21 points per game, and the next best is Gustavo Hamer with +1.79 — a sign of things to come next season perhaps.
The worst by this metric (of players starting more than 5 games) is Tom Davies with -2.16.
Our top-rated player according to FotMob is Gustavo Hamer, who averages a score of 7.00 by their ranking.
Our top-rated player according to SofaScore is Ben Brereton Diaz, who averages a score of 7.09 by their ranking.
And finally, a funny quirk: this season all three promoted teams lost their opening three games of the season — this was the first time this had happened in the Premier League era. The harsh reality is that the top flight has got tougher, and if we are to bounce back, we need to do things differently.

Enjoy your Monday!