xG. It's one of the most discussed statistics in modern day football. Managers around the globe will analyse the performance of their team not purely based on the result itself, but how efficient they are compared to their expected goals.
The data basically details how many decent goalscoring opportunities the team creates and a liklihood of that chance being taken. Performing above or below your xG can make or break a season and in a results driven environment, can very often cost a manager his job. In truth, it’s a posh version of a manger saying, ‘we created plenty of chances but our useless striker can’t hit a barn door’. It can add weight to their argument that the team in general are functioning but just aren’t clinical enough at the sharp end. It can of course work the other way and highlight the deficiencies in the team and show that perhaps the manager hasn’t set his team up correctly and is not getting his players in the right areas to create chances.
Which ever way round you look at it, the xG debate continues to rumble on and plays a huge part in today’s game. So how do Brighton stack up against their Premier League rivals? Here, Sussex World, courtesy of statistics from www.betvictor.com, looks at the numbers...