{"id":5529,"date":"2018-03-24T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.manunited.uk\/?p=5529"},"modified":"2018-03-24T11:10:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-24T11:10:38","slug":"david-de-gea-saving-manchester-uniteds-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manunited.uk\/2018\/03\/24\/david-de-gea-saving-manchester-uniteds-season\/","title":{"rendered":"David De Gea: saving Manchester United’s season"},"content":{"rendered":"
Following up on last week\u2019s piece on expected goals (xG), it\u2019s now time to focus on the defensive side of Manchester United and whether their high-profile defensive mistakes have been significantly impacting their season.<\/p>\n
xG is a metric that assesses every chance and whether a player should have scored from that opportunity.\u00a0 Expected goals against (xGA) uses the same metric but focuses on the shots that are conceded by a team and whether that shot should have resulted in a goal. For example, a shot from 8 yards has a higher value than a shot from 18 yards and a shot directly in front of goal has a higher value than one from a tight angle. This then creates a statistical value of how many goals a team should have conceded correlated to the types of chances they had.<\/p>\n
Team<\/td>\n | Games played<\/td>\n | xGA<\/td>\n | Goals against<\/td>\n | Difference<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||
Manchester City<\/td>\n | 30<\/td>\n | 19.40<\/td>\n | 20<\/td>\n | -0.60<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||
Paris Saint German<\/td>\n | 31<\/td>\n | 22.14<\/td>\n | 21<\/td>\n | -1.14<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||
Barcelona<\/td>\n | 29<\/td>\n | 22.06<\/td>\n | 13<\/td>\n | +9.06<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||
Juventus<\/td>\n | 29<\/td>\n | 20.72<\/td>\n | 15<\/td>\n | +5.72<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | ||||||||||
Bayern Munich<\/td>\n | 27<\/td>\n | 23.18<\/td>\n | 20<\/td>\n | +3.18<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Using understat.com, looking at the top five leagues in Europe, Serie A leaders Juventus provide no surprises conceding 5.72 goals less than expected. This highlights their effective defensive unit which has enabled them to progress to two Champions League finals in three years, but also the individual qualities of Gianluigi Buffon and Giorgio Chiellini.<\/p>\n Most surprisingly, La Liga leaders Barcelona concede 9.06 goals less per game than expected, even with their reputation for attacking football. Arguably, Barcelona have one world class defender in Gerard Pique showing that the defensive shape throughout the team and their high press are contributing significantly to conceding less goals and is a testament to Ernesto Valverde providing a defensive structure to a free-flowing attacking team.<\/p>\n
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