[Albion] Maupay stats vs other PL strikers this season

[Guinness Boy]

Almost all of that list above is made up of wide players and second choice strikers.

Maupay plays virtually every game up top. He's had an erratic season.

Agree with the view that he needs a better partner to bring the best out of him.

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Not sure if you mean my list or Vagabonds? I picked four out deliberately - two "attacking options" (Zaha and Mahrez) and two line leaders. Ings has made 25 appearances this season, curtailed only by injury. The pass stats are per game.

What it shows is that Mahrez is all round better than any of them, which is why he plays for City. "Up top" also has small permutations as Maupay has played wider quite a few times, depending on the set up.

But I'm not seeking to appease anyone here. To me Maupay is misused and we have far too many passers and not enough finishers in the group.

 

[Seasidesage]

I like Welbeck and would keep him for another 12 months at least but we need another option for the here and now. If Maupay had been injured for a long period this season I think we'd have been in serious trouble. Zeqiri and Connolly both need loan spells away where they can learn their trade. Andone is rapidly running out of time to save his Albion career.

It's the primary way I can see next season turning into a disaster. We are pretty well set everywhere else across the pitch, maybe back up options in goal and LB but we lost Maupay even with his faults and as it stands we'd struggle...

 

[Hugo Rune]

Strikers are shite when their confidence is shite. Werner (25) is (currently) missing sitters and Iheanacho (24) was considered not fit to lace Vardy’s boots just 10 weeks ago. Maupay’s confidence is shot but at just 24 he is not finished. Right now his touch is SO off and his finishing is SO off but the bloke doesn’t hide. Neal needs the summer off. Think he’ll be better with full stadiums too.

(And yes, he has missed a hat full of chances)

Good point. The Werner comparison is a brilliant one.

The problem is in Maupay’s head. He has all the skill and ability. He actually gets on the end of a lot of stuff and is in the right place at the right time. This season, he has been given the opportunity to score 20+ goals, an opportunity many Premier League strikers would have taken. It’s frustrating but he just needs to turn a switch in his head and he could well be our highest scorer in the top flight ever.

However, if he doesn’t, we need someone who will next season. That means a new man (or Andone).

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lens]

Just looking at his goals scored or even xG in isolation really isn't helpful. If you look at his teamplay stats you start to see how vital he is to the way Potter plays football. To take just a few examples from [MENTION=38362]vagabond[/MENTION] 's list:

Maupay has 2 assists, the same number as Zaha and Cavani.
Maupay has 19.29 passes per match, more than Ings and Cavani, just less than Zaha (circa 24) and much less than Mahrez (38 ish). A clear indicator that he's a team player more than a solid number 9 but that he is not the ONLY decent attacking option (Zaha) or playing for Man City as practically an attacking option with a free role (Mahrez).
Maupay has 6 big chances created, double Wilf and Ings on 3, more than Cavani on 4 and one less than Mahrez's 7.

So, I'll say it again. He needs a finisher playing WITH him, not replacing him. For all those who point out that TB is a stats man and will see the team's overall progress would you replace a player who creates more chances than Zaha, scores a similar number of goals and makes a similar number of passes?

I've disagreed a lot with [MENTION=38333]Swansman[/MENTION] recently, but he's spot on when he says we need goals from midfield and the support players. Think about our good chances. How many has Trossard wasted? Lallana? Gross? Connolly? Welbeck? And, to a lesser extent, Biss, who scores some bangers but still needs to learn when to unleash.

Better finishing all round needed and an option of a dirty great number nine to play with Maupay who can stick it away with any body part going, Muzza style. Don't hold your breath though.

I agree whole-heartedly with this. Maupay's contribution is not best measured in goals alone and his value to the team is broader than that for me. On Saturday, I did find myself wondering what he would be like playing with a "goal-hanger" - Like you GB I can't think who would that would be, but in their absence, coaxing more goals from across the squad looks a more likely focus in the short term.

 

[schmunk]

This

I was reading yesterday the reason Ihaenacho has sparked to life is Brendan Rogers has twigged and partnered him with VArdy and they have clicked . . . . . IF we can sign a striker/forward player to complement Maupay we could be on the money. It's pretty obvious at the moment we don't have that player, or it hasn't clicked yet.

Albeit, whilst Iheanacho has suddenly found his form and scored 10 in the last 10 PL matches, Vardy has lost his form and only scored 2 in that time...

 

[m@goo]

Maupay has now scored the same number of goals this season as forum favourite Danny Ings (8). And 1 less than Rashford and Aubameyang.

His shot accuracy (57%) is higher this season than Kane’s (47%), Bamford (51%) and Mane (50%).

And surprising of all... Maupay’s goal conversion percentage (19%) is only fractionally below Kane’s (20%).

How many of us would say "no, you can keep Kane, we'll stick with Maupay."

 

[CheeseRolls]

This

I was reading yesterday the reason Ihaenacho has sparked to life is Brendan Rogers has twigged and partnered him with VArdy and they have clicked . . . . . IF we can sign a striker/forward player to complement Maupay we could be on the money. It's pretty obvious at the moment we don't have that player, or it hasn't clicked yet.

Agreed there is no point going down a rabbit hole with the stats. Goals and assists from our forwards tell you quite quickly we haven't found a combination that gels. Wellbeck has been the best of a bad bunch and is also possibly the simplest one to change out. It isn't always the obvious answer. Trossard's numbers when compared to similar attacking midfielders/supporting forwards suffers possibly because he is not assigned to set pieces. Connolly has just had a poor season and needs to sort himself out.

Just look at the way we play.

We NEVER put crosses into the area assuming our forwards can head the ball. Crosses are for set pieces.
We try and play intricate passes through tight packed defences and the lack of variety makes this quite predictable, particularly against teams sitting deep.

I have seen so much analysis on Maupay's fininshing ability and little on his link up play. So much goes thorugh him and I think too often it is a dead end. The way we are playing he should have a huge number of assists and if you want to improve the goals scored from midfield, the forwards need to lay the ball off inviting the midfielders to shoot or move and create the space.
A forward who can actually head a ball, would also add a bit of much needed variety.

 

[blue-shifted]

How many of us would say "no, you can keep Kane, we'll stick with Maupay."

Yeh because Kane will shoot from anywhere, left or right foot

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

We NEVER put crosses into the area assuming our forwards can head the ball. Crosses are for set pieces.
We try and play intricate passes through tight packed defences and the lack of variety makes this quite predictable, particularly against teams sitting deep.

Not often, but not 'never'. I can think of a few opportunities that we spurned (a glaring one by Welbeck) in the last game. Three or four decent crosses from Ali J and that was in the last quarter of one game.

 

[wellquickwoody]

He’s currently on 8 PL goals this season.

So let’s look at who else is on 8 goals:
- Sadio Mane
- Maddison
- Gabriel Jesus
- Cavani

And on 9:
- Raheem Sterling
- Mahrez

And 10 (which not that far away really)
- Iheanacho
- Zaha
- Ings
- Rashford

These are all mega multi million stars many would love us to sign. Yet despite our collective exasperation our boy Maupay is holding it down with all these guys.

Maybe he doesn’t need replacing. He needs other forwards to complement him and/or compete with him next season.

Food for thought.

But most of those on that list are not their clubs top scorer, they are playing second/joint fiddle with another goal scorer.

 

[Stat Brother]

There's a lot (sadly) to unpack here

[tweet]1386271199630594050[/tweet]


An awful lot of poor judgement.
Maupay seems keen to extra touch/second guess himself.

Again I contend the mantra of '500+ misses = shite strikers' doesn't really cover it.

Yes there are a few Connolly v Spurs, but they are normal throughout every season for every club.
They just look much worse when added to the extra passes, missed headers, woodwork hit and crucially defenders having the time to make a saving block.

 

[blue-shifted]

I don't think striker is Maupay's best position

I'd have him on the right of a 3 with a bit more responsibility to the whole team and a bit more emphasis on beating a man then crossing and a bit less to be the main goalscorer. I wonder if this change of focus would lead to less pressure and the goals starting to flow.

I also prefer Zeqiri to Welbeck (as a pure centre forward), so my front 3 would be

---------Zeqiri
Trossard Maupay

 

[blue-shifted]

But most of those on that list are not their clubs top scorer, they are playing second/joint fiddle with another goal scorer.

And of course a lot of those players haven't played anywhere near the minutes that Maupay has, due to injury or there being lots of other superstars at the club

 

[Mo Gosfield]

There is no question that Maupay is a ' confidence ' player and that confidence can be pretty fragile. Four goals in his first four PL games this season but soon after was left out of the Tottenham game ( for whatever reason...we don't know ) Games 5 - 14 produced no goals ( including a missed penalty v Liverpool ) Then he appeared to get his mojo back and went on another mini run of three goals in the next five games. So at the halfway point of the season, he had 7 goals and looked set to beat last season's total. Since then, his confidence has vanished and he has scored one goal in 14 games. So, when his confidence was high, he scored 7 goals in 9 games. For the rest of the time, 1 goal in 24 games.
There is a clear pattern here. A player, who sparks into life for short periods but then goes off the boil for longer periods, in between. Its nothing to do with the team being on top of their game as we only won two of the games in the period in which he scored 7 goals. The fluctuations in his game are the worry. If, as some suggest, he just isn't good enough and misses a bucketload of chances, then surely percentages would dictate that these goals would be spread more evenly across the season. If a player demonstrates that he can go on mini scoring sprees, then surely that shows that there is an ability to score at this level.

 

[dazzer6666]

Can be a bit of a vicious circle perhaps.........player has a bad run of form, confidence drops...............social and mainstream media (including very much on here, and I saw one advertisement on Twitter from a betting company taking the piss out of his finishing) is increasingly flooded with multiple new threads, analysis, MEMEs and some nastier abusive/critical stuff that the player is bound to see (mostly full of opinions of people who don't have much of a clue how he's feeling, how he's doing in training, what the rest of the squad or management think etc), most likely further damaging confidence.

He's a decent player clearly in a rut and will come good I reckon. Lallana has missed at least as many (very) decent chances in recent games - our lack of goals isn't just down to Maupay.

 

[zefarelly]

Agreed there is no point going down a rabbit hole with the stats. Goals and assists from our forwards tell you quite quickly we haven't found a combination that gels. Wellbeck has been the best of a bad bunch and is also possibly the simplest one to change out. It isn't always the obvious answer. Trossard's numbers when compared to similar attacking midfielders/supporting forwards suffers possibly because he is not assigned to set pieces. Connolly has just had a poor season and needs to sort himself out.

Just look at the way we play.

We NEVER put crosses into the area assuming our forwards can head the ball. Crosses are for set pieces.
We try and play intricate passes through tight packed defences and the lack of variety makes this quite predictable, particularly against teams sitting deep.

I have seen so much analysis on Maupay's fininshing ability and little on his link up play. So much goes thorugh him and I think too often it is a dead end. The way we are playing he should have a huge number of assists and if you want to improve the goals scored from midfield, the forwards need to lay the ball off inviting the midfielders to shoot or move and create the space.
A forward who can actually head a ball, would also add a bit of much needed variety.

As I said on another thread, my Dog can head the ball better than the vast majority of BHA players. . . he's about the same height as Connolly and Maupay though.

https://youtu.be/4ijippinl-4

 

[blue-shifted]

Can be a bit of a vicious circle perhaps.........player has a bad run of form, confidence drops...............social and mainstream media (including very much on here, and I saw one advertisement on Twitter from a betting company taking the piss out of his finishing) is increasingly flooded with multiple new threads, analysis, MEMEs and some nastier abusive/critical stuff that the player is bound to see (mostly full of opinions of people who don't have much of a clue how he's feeling, how he's doing in training, what the rest of the squad or management think etc), most likely further damaging confidence.

He's a decent player clearly in a rut and will come good I reckon. Lallana has missed at least as many (very) decent chances in recent games - our lack of goals isn't just down to Maupay.

Very true.

I do think Maupay is the lightning rod for derision nationally about our finishing (because he's the main centre forward).

But, apart from possibly Dunk, I don't think we have one player who you can say has finished as well as they should have done. Lallana and Trossard, (obviously fine players) have been largely awful in front of goal.

Every team misses chances of course and lowlight reels don't prove anything in the same way that highlights reels don't, but the way I judge a finisher to to ask

"how many goals did he score which I didn't expect them to get?" not many

and

"how many misses did they do which I would expect them to score?" A few too many

 

[CheeseRolls]

Not often, but not 'never'. I can think of a few opportunities that we spurned (a glaring one by Welbeck) in the last game. Three or four decent crosses from Ali J and that was in the last quarter of one game.

Fair point - We might try crossing when we are desperate at the end of a game and then realise we don't have anyone who can head a ball. Although not the tallest Connolly can at least head a ball, but he isn't going to get on the end of crosses, playing at left back.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

There's a lot (sadly) to unpack here

[tweet]1386271199630594050[/tweet]


An awful lot of poor judgement.
Maupay seems keen to extra touch/second guess himself.

Again I contend the mantra of '500+ misses = shite strikers' doesn't really cover it.

Yes there are a few Connolly v Spurs, but they are normal throughout every season for every club.
They just look much worse when added to the extra passes, missed headers, woodwork hit and crucially defenders having the time to make a saving block.

Still as depressing to watch as the first time though again, some of the build up play and nearly assists are wonderful.

I really don't want to hang out an individual player, but I have lost patience with Maupay this season. I appreciate what he does overall for the team but for a Premier League striker, his finishing really is the pits. Some of those misses are just dreadful. I'd forgotten about his Palace miss when he cut inside, that was ridiculous. I don't think it is just a confidence thing either because he does this throughout the season, even after he's scored goals and you'd think his confidence would be up. I don't think he's got the required technique or intelligence at the moment. I never have faith that he will make the right decision.

I've read all of the posts backing him up for what he contributes to the team and can see he works hard but personally, I think he's let us down too many times this season and just isn't good enough at the moment. I admire Potter's persistent faith in him but I would like us to try something else with what we have this season and then in the summer, look to hopefully bring in another, better, striker if we can (I also understand that is not easy or cheap). And yes, we do also need more goals from other players but the fact is, Maupay is the individual player who misses the vast majority of our chances.

Whilst saying all of that, I don't want to sell him. I would still like him as part of the squad as he does contribute and is still young enough to be able to improve his technique and hopefully make better decisions in time.

 

[Swansman]

Maupay this, Maupay that.

Plenty of PL teams are doing or would do just fine with a striker with his numbers. But how on earth could that be, when Brighton are in a relegation battle?

Because their midfielders and wide players (whether wingers or wing backs) got a decent goal production. I know, I know "midfielders should chip in but ultimately...", I've heard it. But plenty of the midfielders in the top and mid table teams are "chipping in" with 15-25 goals, which results in a shit load of points compared to the 10 (and I'm including Trossard, 4 goals, who is not rarely playing up front) scored by Brighton midfielders.

As plenty have said, the goal production from strikers leaves much to be desired, but it really is a team issue. Great, find a better striker, scoring closer to xG, than Maupay and maybe you have another five goals next season. Should result in a handful more points. But if the midfield scores somewhere closer to lets say Leeds, you have about 15 more goals, most likely resulting in a number of points you would probably require an entire bag to carry!

The whole "just get a better striker and we would be in the top 6" thing is a lie, aside for one or two freak instances over the years you dont come anywhere near the top 6 with this kind of midfield production.

Luckily, there is a good possibility of improvement in both areas. Maupay is one of the youngest starting strikers in the PL (and Connolly / Zeqiri are both very young) and from midfield Moder looks like he could be a Soucek kind of guy and while Mac Allister so far has been quite point shy he is still very young and I think he could turn into someone who frequently scores in the PL in the not too distant future. For Alzate, the jury is out and next season will be important for him, same (but different) for Trossard who got some good stuff in him but needs to provide more consistently.

Add one or two new players - one striker and one midfielder/winger - and the return of the infinitely (compared to BDB & Veltman) more threatening March / Lamptey and this squad wide issue could very well solve itself naturally without too many pounds spent.