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Clear-Cut Finishing Analysis | Suarez, Aguero, Giroud, Rooney Compared

Following on from Statto’s article looking at the players to create the most clear cut chances this season, we take a look at how well the strikers have done in front of goal converting these clear cut chances.

So what is a clear cut chance?

[quote]A situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score usually in a one-on-one scenario or from very close range.[/quote]

Basically, a clear-cut chance is a  “sitter”. A free header, a one-on-one, a penalty – basically any free shot on goal for a player who is un-marked and only has the keeper to beat.

Clear-cut finishing

The table below shows how many clear-cut chances each of the strikers have had, scored,missed and their conversion rates this season .The table can be sorted by clicking on the columns.

[table id=271 /]

As you can see from the table above Oliver Giroud has had more clear-cut chances than any other player this season with 18, while Luis Suarez has had 16, Sergio Aguero and Roberto Soldado have had 14 and Alvaro Negredo has had 12. Out of all the players in the chart Wayne Rooney, Jay Rodriguez, Rickie Lambert, Dimitar Berbatov, Mesut Ozil, Darren Bent and Paulinho have all had the fewest clear-cut chances with 7.

As well as having the most clear cut chances created for him by team-mates this season, Oliver Giroud has also missed more clear cut chances than any other player this season with 12. Sergio Aguero and Roberto Soldado have most missed 9 clear cut chances this season, while Luis Suarez has missed 8 and Paulinho, Theo Walcott, Stephane Sessegnon, Christian Benteke, Raheem Sterling, Peter Crouch, Alvaro Negredo and Frazier Campbell have all missed 7.

Luis Suarez is the player to score the most goals from clear cut chances this season with 8, while Danny Welbeck has scored 7 and Jay Rodriquez and Olivier Giroud have scored 6 goals from clear cut chances. Paulinho is the only player in the chart above not to score from a clear cut chance this season, while Theo Walcott and Stephane Sessegnon have both only scored 1 goal from clear cut chances.

Danny Welbeck has been the most clinical player with his clear cut chances this season, converting an impressive 88% of his 8 clear cut chances, while Jay Rodriguez has been the second most clinical player converting 86% of his 7 clear cut chances. Rodriguez’s team-mate Rickie Lambert has also converted a high percentage of his clear cut chances this season, converting an also impressive 71% of his 7 clear-cut chances. Romelu Lukaku has converted 63% of his clear cut chances this season, while Wilfried Bony, Yoan Gouffran, Loic Remy and Luis Suarez have all converted 50% of theirs.

Paulinho has the worst chance conversion rate out of all these players in this comparison, not scoring with any of his 7 clear cut chances so far this season. Theo Walcott and Stephane Sessegnon have only converted 13% of their clear cut chances, while Christian Benteke, Raheem Sterling and Peter Crouch have converted just 22% of theirs.

So, although Southampton have only created 14 clear-cut chances in total for Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez this season, the strikers have converted an impressive 79% of them and have only missed 3 clear cut chances between them and have been clinical when clear cut chances have been created for them.

While Tottenham on the other hand have had the complete opposite. Spurs have created 21 clear cut chances for Paulinho and Roberto Soldado so far this season and only scored 5 goals, converting just 24% of their clear cut chances with 4 of these 5 goals coming from the penalty spot.

Christian Benteke has been the most wasteful striker with clear cut chances this season, converting just 22% of them. This is compared to last season when the Belgian converted 50% of his 22 clear cut chances and has resulted in Benteke netting just 4 goals so far this season. This is compared to Danny Welbeck, who has converted 88% of his 8 clear cut chances this season, after having just 4 clear cut chances created for him in the whole of last season, when he converted 25% of those chances.

Clear cut chances are an important metric to help measure how many “easy” chances players have during the course of the season and it helps to see when players are going through a bad patch in front of goal whether it is down to them not having enough clear-cut chances created for them or whether it is down to the player missing more clear cut chances than they would normally.

However, the data is very subjective as their a lot of variables involved when measuring a clear cut chance and Opta do not distinguish one clear cut chance from another. For example, both a penalty and a one on one with a goalkeeper are recorded as clear cut chances and the distance away from goal is not taken into consideration.

Being a subjective statistic it is hard to get many valid conclusions from the data provided as the definition of a clear cut chance is up for interpretation, but it can go some way into helping us see which teams and player are scoring their goals from easier chances and which teams/players need to create better chances for their strikers to score from.

James Amey
James Amey
Head of the writers here on EPLIndex! Can also be found on Twitter - @jamesamey316
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