ANALYSIS

[Deleted User 3150]

https://statsbomb.com/2020/08/leeds-uni ... al-review/

[Leonickroberts]

https://statsbomb.com/2020/08/leeds-uni ... al-review/

Thanks for sharing WIF, this is fascinating - great to see stats confirm what we've all seen. A few bits jumped out at me:

"Looking at metrics, Bielsa turned a mid-table, negative expected goal team into one with the league's best metrics. It also happened very quickly. Within his first ten games the team was recording close to 0.7xG per game more than their opponents. That is to say, their underlying performances were around seven goals better than the opposition."

"In aggregate, it was the other end of the pitch that was more costly for Leeds as a negative defensive skew was large. In conceding 50 goals, Leeds allowed around 13 goals more than expectation...a majority of that came from if we just look at shots on target from range"
i.e. Bailey Peacock-Farrell wasn't actually a very good shot-stopper (to my mind a pre-requisite for keepers...), and neither, it turns out, was Kiko Casilla.

There's a graphic (about halfway down) showing how much we press, and where, compared to other teams, which really shows how important Bamford is to our style. One thing I've thought for a while is that there might be a direct conflict between playing the high-pressing defensive striker role Bielsa expects and actually being able to score goals.