In our analysis, we evaluate all the players who played in the Eredivisie until March (20-03-2024) focusing, primarily, on the goals in the Eredivisie.
Goals are an essential factor in football. Therefore, it is important to assess the players who “fulfil” this role on the pitch. For this, we need to evaluate all the positions as well as the goal-related indicators. Therefore, our analysis focuses on three key points:
- Goals vs Expected Goals;
- Biggest xG Under-performers & Over-performers;
- Goals per 90min vs Expected Goals per 90min;
1 – Goals vs Expected Goals
Conducting an initial analysis, we noticed that there are some players who stand out. In the top right-hand corner, we can see some players with a high number of Goals and xG (Expected Goals):
As highlighted in the graph above, the league’s top scorers is AZ Alkmaar’s Vangelis Pavlidis. Furthermore, we emphasise that Pavlidis is a bit ahead of his competition: PSV’s Luuk de Jong and Feyenoord’s Santiago Gimenez, all players having a clearly better goal scoring record than their expected goals. In addition to these athletes, we can see that a lot of the players are in the “Over-performing xG” section, even players from smaller teams such as NEC’s Mattsson and Fortuna Sittard’s Sierhuis. In the opposite section, we find a player that is underperforming their xG: Ajax’s Brian Brobbey.
2 – Biggest xG Under-performers & Over-performers
In this second section, we introduce the four players who under-performed and over-performerd xG the most:
Of the players featured in this graph, we need to highlight Magnus Mattsson. Mattsson was transferred from NEC to Kobenhavn in January and one of the main reasons for the quality season he was having was his incredible ability to finish in front of goal. On the negative side, Sparta Rotterdam’s striker (Tobias Lauritsen) are struggling to score their chances in the Eredivisie.
3 – Goals per 90min vs Expected Goals per 90min
Lastly, we look at the performance of these same players in terms of Goals and Expected Goals per 90 minutes. This type of view will allows us to better understand and compare players numbers since the number of games isn’t weighed so heavily. However, in order to obtain unbiased results, we placed a minimum limit on the number of games played (5 full games = 450 minutes).
Being one of the most recent signings for Ajax, Chuba Akpom’s performance is highlighted in this chart by his incredible Minutes to Goals ratio. Akpom’s performance is the best performer per 90 among Eredivisie players with significant minutes.
MORE EREDIVISE CONTENT:
BEST PLAYERS IN EREDIVISIE – NETHERLANDS (MAR 2024)
TOP PERFORMERS PER TEAM: EREDIVISIE 23/24 #1
Data from FBref.
