Here’s the xG from the Forest game. The first half hour was very bitty, the only chance registering above 1 in 10 was an attempt from Tavernier that was blocked. With their first big chance Forest scored. A good header from Kouyate, that I suspect Neto would have had no chance with even if he hadn’t initially attempted to come for Gibbs-White well-taken corner (rated 15%). The next big chance was the penalty (where VAR intervention meant it took 5 minutes to confirm and to my knowledge the first time a referee has stuck to his decision after being summoned to the monitor). Johnson made it 2-0 (rated 4 in 5) and it was half-time. A change in formation to attacking wingbacks transformed the game. It required a Billing super strike (rated 1 in 50) to ignite things, we’d been on the end of one at Liverpool the week before and I’m glad we’ve evened this tally so quickly. Forest went 20 minutes without creating a chance and by this point, it was 2-2. Kelly peeled off Cook to head back for Solanke’s acrobatic finish (rated 1 in 5). The game was tense, even though neither team had any chances between the 69th and the 87th minute, before this Awoniyi and Christie both had chances rated approximately 1 in 9. Then in the 87th minute, McKenna played a woefully weak pass to Henderson under pressure from Solanke. Solanke nipped in, and squared it to Anthony, who had just come on to sweep it past Henderson (rated 1 in 4, so not the tap-in people were led to believe). What a game for those there.
We started with 4 at the back, although with Mepham and Kelly playing noticeable deeper than Zemura and Smith (who were level with Cook). At half time, we switched Smith back into a three, moved Tavernier to left wingback, and Fredericks (who came on for Zemura) to right wingback. Despite this change, Tavernier was on average our most advanced player, with Christie, Solanke and Billing all fairly level. Anthony looks slightly deeper, but he scored soon after coming on and we defended for much of the time after. Moore and Stacey came on late and I’ve missed them off the graphic.
Smith had most touches in the game, followed by Tavernier and Cook. Tavernier had most in the opposition’s half and the final third. Solanke had a relatively small number but made them count with the goal.
Six players played 40 or more passes: with Lerma making 67. Christie, Solanke and Tavernier had success rates above 90% with no one who played a pass below 2 in 3 successful. Lerma played most passes in the opposition half and Billing most in the final third (with a success rate of 90%).
I’ve done a quick game-by-game analysis, at Forest, we had most second-most passes in the opposition half (after Arsenal) and the most in the final third. In total, it was second most in all games bar Arsenal at home. Forest was the first game where the passing success rate was above 80% for each of all passes, passes in the opposition’s half and passes in the final third.
Kelly had the most aerial duels (6) although wasn’t particularly successful (33% success rate). Contrastingly, Lerma won all 5 of his, and Smith won 3 of 4. Cook made most tackles (6) and was successful in 4, then followed by Christie who won 2 of 4.
Kelly (9), Lerma and Cook (both 7) made the most recoveries. Mepham (9) and Kelly (6) made the most clearances as expected from centre-backs. Mepham (3) and Cook (1) were the only players to make blocks.
