Bethnal Yellow and Green

It is explained here - https://www.whoscored.com/Explanations

When the scores are generated by an formula based on the game statistics I don’t think it has much to do with ‘going under the radar’. Whoscored ratings are a bit odd and they are always heavily bias towards attacking players - basically no one really knows how to statsically analyse defenders and full backs. A nice thing to see, but ultimately. fairly meaningless.

It’s not everyone in the league, but here is a slice of the top 4.

Sorry, that was a more in general point and not aimed directly at you nutty. What you say is actually what I have been saying on here also. These are good stats to see trends but are not going to tell you what will or won’t happen tomorrow. For me, the trends suggests that Pukki (and Norwich) are overachieving in finishing. When that stops is anyone’s guess - but I do believe in ‘reversion to the mean’.

In fairness to Farke, Tettey and Trybull were the best midfield partnership last season. But they were playing a different role in providing a solid platform for Maddison to do his thing. Farke isn’t putting them together at the expense of others, this isn’t the first or second choice midfield for Norwich. McLean is the only person who may take umbrage with not starting, but he hasn’t done a 90 mins in any league game this season so fitness has to be a consideration. I did wonder if his appearance yesterday was to help build up fitness to start on Saturday.

The name ‘expected goals’ is probably the biggest problem with this stat. People hear it and make a judgement and then disregard it. It is simply a measure of how many times out of 100 similar shots have been scored. There are numerous different models which take different considerations into there workings - I gave an extensive list earlier in this thread. I don’t get why people get so defensive about numbers.

Buendia was played like a 10 last season and likes to be central. I guess it depends on how much he is expected to do defense. He is a precocious tackler, but might not have the discipline to track a man etc. Also his tackling in the box needs some work... I have a feeling that Leitner will start on Saturday and Norwich will have their normal system. Farke’s comments didn’t suggest someone who is about to change things radically. If Leitner really isn’t fit enough, then the back 3 may appear again. When you look at the players available Norwich have three good centrebacks, so maybe good to get the best players Norwich have playing. Interesting to see what happens but Leitner or McLean coming in for Trybull is my guess.

Godfrey’s ability to bring the ball out of defence and beat the first line of the opposition’s press is vital. Hanley and Zimmermann together just won’t work with the system Farke plays. If Farke wants Tettey and Trybull together he needs to change the system. They don’t have the passing ability to play out from the back. Norwich looked better when they switched to a back 3 as Buendia came more central and acted as a focal point.

I don’t think anyone has ever said it is gospel. The thing that is so wonderful about football and for me lifts it above all other sports is its marginality. A team can be thoroughly out played but still win as goal events are so low in football. That doesn’t happen in most other sports.

I’ve only recently heard about his high achievement against ‘expected’ so didn’t expect anything personally. I can’t predict the future but the evidence suggests that on probability Pukki won’t continue to score so many from the equivalent chances. That doesn’t mean to say he won’t continue to score a lot of goals though. As I said, hot streaks can go on for a long time.

Expected Goals is the measure of how good the chances he received are, so the measure is relative - which is why it is a far better measure than shots data. Expected Goals models are transferable from league to league as it is a dataset drawn across many leagues. Some of them have data from over half a million shots.

He played both at Aberdeen. He said that he prefers the deeper position as he gets more time on the ball. He also did that role in the Portsmouth game, so I don’t have any doubt Farke feels he can play there.

I think you could argue that Pukki would see a boost in his figures while playing in Denmark due to poorer quality keepers, rather than that boost coming while he’s in the Championship. I don’t claim to know what will happen in the future. I don’t have all the data to make big claims. All I know is Pukki is showing levels of finishing higher than players like Kane and Messi etc right now. Which is brilliant for Norwich.

I can’t see how Cantwell would get picked as one of the central midfields. He has been used exclusively on the wings or the 10 position so far this season.

Of course, you would expect to see a trend towards improvement as peak years arrive and then to move away as age hits. However, the jump seen from Pukki’s previous season to this is pretty extreme and would be almost unprecedented if he maintains it over a prolonged period of time.