Spurs star is third most wasteful PL player in front of goal – Not Timo Werner

One Tottenham man has been among the least effective players in the Premier League when it comes to chance conversion, according to xG data.

Tottenham’s summer signing has won over sceptics

It is fair to say that a lot of Spurs fans were quite wary when the club decided to break their transfer record to sign Dominic Solanke in the summer.

In fact, many at the time even questioned why Tottenham did not go for fellow England striker, Ivan Toney instead.

However, just a few months into his time at N17, the former Cherries star has demonstrated exactly why the Lilywhites paid such a big fee for him.

The 26-year-old has offered a lot to Tottenham in terms of pressing and his interplay outside the box, and he has also shown that he has an eye for goal, having found the back of the net six times so far, four of which have come in the Premier League.

Dominic Solanke’s chance conversion is quite poor

However, xG philosophy have now revealed that based on the expected goals, Tottenham‘s summer signing has been the third worst in the Premier League when it comes to chance conversion.

They reveal that Solanke has scored four goals from an xG of 6.43, with only Fulham’s Adama Traore and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes underperforming their xG to a higher degree than the Spurs man.

This demonstrates the weakness of the xG model

Expected goals are calculated purely based on the position on the pitch where the shot is taken, based on the historical chance-conversation data for shots from that range.

It does not consider how much time the player has to get his shot away or how many bodies are in front of him, which all have a big influence on the quality of a chance.

With Tottenham getting into the opposition box more times than most teams in the Premier League, it is not surprising that Solanke’s xG is high.

However, the eye test would suggest that the centre-forward has not been particularly wasteful in front of goal, barring his first couple of league games. In fact, he probably accumulated most of this wasted xG in those first two matches when he missed a fair few sitters.

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