Stat Attack – Everton v AFC Bournemouth

Written by Matt Stevenson

Here’s the xG from the Everton game. Everton dominated the chances in what was the most disappointing performance of the Iraola reign. The game had zero chances until an unfortunate slip by Zabarnyi allowed Everton to break with Cook left 2 against 1. Garner then used Cook as a shield to bend it round a presumably unsighted Neto to score (rated 1 in 14). The game was again quiet for 25 minutes during which the xG was Everton 0.26 and AFCB 0.20 until Everton scored with a superb finish from Harrison (rated 1 in 50). Question marks will be raised about an incident earlier in the move when Neto elected to punch a ball that looked like he could have caught, but this may be the instructions he is given. A flurry of chances near the stroke for Everton of half-time meant the xG was Everton 0.78 AFCB 0.20. Listening on the radio is appeared that the confidence had drained from the side and after a dull 15 minutes, Everton made it 3-0. There was controversy as there appeared to be a foul on Smith, Everton broke, and Kerkez did excellently to stop a Harrison header, but the ball fell to Doucoure to have an open goal (rated 19 in 20). Kerkez’s block may have worked against us if this intervention (as with West Ham away last year) meant the phase had been reset and VAR would not look at the foul on Smith. Four minutes later Calvert-Lewin had a good chance (2 in 5) and we sounded in disarray. We rallied briefly with a big chance falling to Zabarnyi (nearly 1 in 2) that was cleared and a header from Moore (1 in 7) but that was it, with Beto, on as a sub, missing a good chance (46%) right at the death.

At the end of the match, the xG was Everton 3.16 AFCB 0.98. Opta had it as Everton 2.49 and AFCB 0.69. Whichever way you view it, it sounded like a game where we didn’t deserve a point.

Man of the match against Everton Tavernier Vote Neto Vote Philip Vote Someone else Vote No one Vote

The average positions are misleading because Tavernier (16) swapped wings around the hour mark. Although Ouattara (11) is surprisingly central (unless he and Tavernier swapped during the game). Christie (10) started ahead of Philip (29) but was withdrawn at half time with Rothwell (8) playing with Cook (4) and Philip playing higher. Ouattara was substituted for Sinisterra (17) who played conventionally on the left. 10 minutes later Kerkez (3) and Cook were withdrawn for Brooks (7) and Moore (21) as we presumably went to a wing-back formation with Moore as a focal point. In the 86th minute, Aarons (37) came on for Smith (15) who had been moved to the right of a three, but I don’t know whether Aarons also played this position.

The only thing that made me smile yesterday about the game was that we had 666 touches to match our (according to many on the forum) ‘diabolical’ display. The centre-backs had the most touches of the ball with 83 for Senesi and 76 for Zabarnyi. Tavernier had 74. Tavernier had nearly double the touches in Everton’s half (48) than any other AFCB player. The same is true for the final third with 35 touches for Tavernier.

We had 27 touches including 6 from Philip, 5 from Solanke and 4 from Moore.

Senesi and Zabarnyi attempted the most passes, 65 and 58 respectively. Tavernier attempted most in the opposition half and final third followed by Philip both times. Of the starting 11, Philip had the highest accuracy with 89% closely followed by Solanke with 88% Kerkez, and Ouattara didn’t have their best games with an accuracy below 70%.

AFCB attempted 18 crosses, being successful with 8 (with Smith having the highest number of successes).

Our players tried to take on a man 14 times, being successful an impressive 11 times. Ten of these were attempted by Tavernier with 7 successes, Sinisterra was 100% from 2 attempts.

We created 10 chances (one big, from Moore). Sinisterra created two chances, the highest number. Everton created 13 chances with 3 big.

We had 11 attempts (1 big for Zabarnyi) noting that chances can be provided after saves, deflections or a defensive error and not created. We hit the target 3 times. Everton had 25 attempts, 4 big, and hit the target 8 times.

AFCB won 15 of 38 aerials duals with only Moore, Philip and Zabarnyi better than 50%. Ouattara and Senesi would both be disappointed with their values.

AFCB won 19 out of 29 tackles. Philip performed best with 4 successful tackles from 4 attempts.

Zabarnyi had most defensive actions with 17 followed by Neto with 16 and Senesi with 15. Cook made the most interceptions, Neto made the most recoveries, Zabarnyi made the most clearances and joint most blocks with Senesi (two).

According to Opta AFCB made one error that led to a chance (and a goal) which was Zabarnyi’s slip.

No player made more than two fouls or was fouled more than twice.

Moore and Zabarnyi had the highest xGs (0.22 and 0.21 respectively – note the big difference between understat and Opta for the rating of Zabarnyi’s chance). No one else was above 0.1. Sinisterra, Moore, Philip and Ouattara and Solanke had the bulk of the xA all being above 0.15.

AFCB had an xGc of 2.49 and let in 3, so did worse than expected although this stat is noisy on a sample of 1.

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