Dorking Wandering
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Thought it would be interesting to look at stats from our games this season to see where things might be going wrong. Unfortunately it isnt easy to compare with other sides without manually going through each club but I have looked at a couple.
(Note that Truro City don't seem to do stats at all so there are no stats from the Truro game for us or any other club, except for goals)
Dorking Wanderers:
| 24/25 | Season Totals | Season Averages |
| Goals Scored | 11 | 1.375 |
| Goals Conceded | 12 | 1.5 |
| Shots | 97 | 13.86 |
| Shots on target | 24 | 3.43 |
| xG | 11.1 | 1.59 |
| xGA | 6.39 | 0.91 |
| Possession % | N/A | 61.71 |
| Crosses | 230 | 32.86 |
| Accurate Crosses | 78 | 11.14 |
| Touches in PA | 171 | 24.43 |
The standout stat is probably the 230 crosses (not including Truro remember) at an average of just under 33 per game with a 34% accuracy. For comparison, Worthing (who have played 1 game less) have put in 72 crosses and Hemel Hempstead (currently top of the league) have put in 134 (8 matches of data). Boreham Wood have put in 156 so far (8 matches of data).
Interestingly though, our xG is quite low at 11.1 and we have pretty much exactly performed at expectation by scoring 11 goals (although once again that does not include Truro so our xG value is likely a bit higher). Would suggest that our crosses from wide areas are not resulting in enough chances being created. This will likely be a mix of delivery not being good enough and strikers not being aggressive enough.
Comparison to some other clubs:
Worthing (only 6 matches of data): 12 goals from an xG of just 5.55! Massively overperforming compared to their stats but they have played 6 out of 7 matches away from home this season
Hemel Hempstead (8 matches): 16 goals from an xG of 15.02. Worth noting that Hemel opposing teams have had 4 red cards this season...
Boreham Wood (8 matches): 12 goals from an xG of 14.06. Surprised at their league position as they looked very good when we played them
Torquay United (8 matches): 12 goals from an xG of 9.07. Overperforming which makes sense as they didn't look a great side when we played them in my opinion
Our shooting stats don't look great with an average of only 3.4 on target per game. An accuracy of around 25%. Hopefully the new lad joining can help with this 😉
Possession currently sitting at an average of just under 62% which is extremely high and I would be surprised if this isn't the highest average in the league. Generally, sides who keep large amounts of possession do well at this level if you look at the likes of Notts County, Chesterfield and Gateshead in recent seasons.
The xGA (expected goals against) stats suggest that opposition strikers are considerably overperforming against us so far. We've conceded 12 goals this season but the quality of chances created against us would suggest that we should have only conceded 6.39 (again, this does not include Truro). Worth noting that we really only have 3 fit defenders currently in Francomb, Craig and Gallagher. Brennan Camp has missed 3 games (and counting) with JNW missing 7 and a half...
Overall, the underlying stats are actually very impressive and suggests that when it clicks up top, we should be winning matches most weeks and scoring plenty of goals. Worth mentioning that Rhys Murphy has only played 104 mins of football this season and McShane has obviously not kicked a ball yet either. Rutherford has only started half the games as well. Norville-Williams has been a big miss as well as he showed how dangerous he can be in that Aveley second half. In total, we're at 45 games missed through injury (and 3 through suspension) already this season!
"We've conceded 12 goals this season but the quality of chances created against us would suggest that we should have only conceded 6.39"
If you look at the last 5 games where we are 1-1-3 (W-D-L) then 6 of the 9 goals in those games were conceded in the second half.
We are very vulnerable in the second half of games playing a lot of players over the age of 30, and playing injured players who start being exposed later on in games.
The quality of chances does not need to be as good because teams are waiting for the second half to really have a go because they know it will be easier to score then.
This was a tactic used against us with a lot of success when we were in NLP especially in the 2nd season. Weymouth did not even attempt to play anything past their own half way line until the 2nd half on Saturday and then went for it.
@jacksonfairweather The quality of those 6 chances were all very low though in general:
Hasani (Torquay) - xG of just 0.04! (worldie)
Davis (Eastbourne) - xG of 0.35 (and this was a foul on Josh Taylor in the build-up)
Harley (Eastbourne) - xG of 0.08 (this chance doesn't even happen if we don't have an injured Bowerman playing at left back)
Kawa (Aveley) - xG of 0.14 (again, this comes from a mistake with the ball being given away)
Pollock (Weymouth) - xG of 0.09 (Decent goal tbf)
Scrimshaw (Weymouth) - xG of 0.07 (strange goal, bit of a mixup between Francomb and Foulkes)
In total, those 6 goals were only worth 0.77 in xGA! You obviously have to take xG stats at bit of a pinch of salt but it shows that we're not exactly being carved open at will and conceding chances all over the place.
Very interesting stats @TomCalvert. And I think in line with what we have seen - lots of possession, lots of crosses going in but not many leading to clear cut chances. A combination of poor delivery, poor understanding with strikers and big defenders defending predictable attacks. But that is all fixable, especially with Murphy to come back. Of the goals conceded, most were avoidable, with only the Torquay worldie and the first Weymouth goal standing out. That was a typical Wanderers goal - off the ball running in the channel creating the chance - which there wasn't enough of until Brooking came on.
More worrying is the @JacksonFairweather point about opposing teams just waiting for the second half and players to tire. Not sure there is much to counter that, in the absence of 5 fit subs to come on, as Marc did in the first few games, to good effect. Maybe get 4-0 up by half time and hang on?!
