Airtricity League shot Analysis by team

Recently I stumbled across a nice simple little graphic that categorises a teams attacking effectiveness.  The original chart is here.  It relates to the English Premier League and is, unfortunately, a little out of date.

It did get me think about applying the same analysis to the Airtricity League here in Ireland.  The shot data I found on ie.soccerway.com.  Some match data was missing and those matches are ignored in the analysis - but Soccerway does have match data recorded for the vast majority of the matches.  So the data backing up the chart is fairly complete.

Clearly football is not all about attacking and this is evident when you look at St. Pats stats versus Cork City's stats.  Cork City are 4 pts clear of St. Pats and joint top of the table with Dundalk (although Dundalk have a game in hand).  St Pats seem to be generating more chances and also making better use of them.  Cork City must be doing something special defensively.  That's not to say that Cork's attacking stats are anything bad.  They certainly are very clinical at converting the chances they do get, however their chance creation seem to lag slightly behind Dundalk and St. Pats.

Also to note that Sligo and Drogheda are both midtable but they fall in opposite ends of this spectrum, with Sligo creating alot of shots but converting few and Drogheda creating few shots but converting alot into goals.  This would perhaps indicate that Sligo shoot on sight and Drogheda patiently work the ball into the six yard box.  With both teams comfortably in mid table, this shows that two opposing strategies can be equally successful.

Without more data on types of shots, shot distance etc. its hard to draw many more conclusions from the chart.  But never the less it still does offer a very succinct comparison of teams attacking effectiveness - and could be used along side other data to highlight the fact that Shamrock Rovers, Sligo and Derry may be lacking a proven finisher.

Finally to complete the picture.  Below is the same analysis based on shots faced.  This is a measure of defensive strength/weakness.  First objective is to limit the number of chances the opposition has.  The second objective is to deny as many of the few chances that you allow.

What stands out here more than anything else is how far UCD are from the rest of the teams.  I had to reset the axis because with over 15 shots allowed per game they were literally off the chart.

The other thing to note is that in terms of repelling shots Cork City are the masters, conceding only 1 goals in 12 shots on average - could mean that they limit the opposition to poor chances (long shots) or that they have an outstanding keeper. In any case, this stat significantly outshines Dundalk who concede about once in 8.5 shots.  Both teams are joint top for now and will meet on the final weekend in a battle of attack vs defence.