Notts County v Accrington ST

A little slower getting these stats out as have been playing around with the data and visuals and trying to make them easier to view on mobile.

Back to the stats and how nice it was to see a Notts team completely control the narrative without the usual edge of your seats gung-ho approach we normally get with the likes of Dan Crowley and Jodi Jones in the team. Don't get me wrong there's nothing more exciting as a fan seeing these two pull the opposition apart but there was something poetic about Saturday's win and the manner in which it was fulfilled.

Despite both teams being very close in terms of Duels Notts came out on top in terms of chances created with the xG analysis suggesting The Magpies expected win % (xWIN%) was in excess of 76% compared to just under 6% for Accrington. I've added a neat little tacho chart to visualise this.

The playing style radar has made a return, basically because I feel it offers an improved visual output clearly defining which actions the clubs were stronger or weaker in than their opponents. Against Accrington we can see Notts were stronger in the construction and progression stats as we have now come to expect, however, Accrington had a fractionally higher match tempo when in possession of the ball, pressed more and actually managed to create more from out wide. This isn't necessarily unexpected with the likes of Crowley, Jones and Jatta missing. The impetus was focussed instead on playing through the lines and to bring David McGoldrick into the game as much as possible when attacking the final third.

This tactic obviously paid off, not only did McGoldrick score both goals but he had a total of 7 attempts on goal with an xG of 0.86.

You will also see the addition of the possession and long pass line graphs. Along with the xG graph these help to add additional context to the overall match performance indicating times of high momentum and/or periods under pressure. We can clearly see that in the final 15 minutes that Notts long passes increased as Accrington's possession increased. This would indicate Notts were more inclined to clear the ball and go long on the counterattack then their usual play out from the back because Accrington finally increased their press and possession in Notts' defensive third. Even though this was the case Notts still managed to create the bigger chances during this period with the visitors limited to pot shots and half chances, something that Notts have started to do well this season with the new recruits at the back under Stuart Maynard.

One final observation relating to duels. Accrington failed to win any of their sliding tackles, Notts, or should I say George Abbott, won 40%. The Spurs youngster has received rave reviews for his full debut in men's football and quite rightly too, needless to say we will all look forward to watching him develop with Notts this season.

I'll be making a few more changes and additions to these reports over the next few games. As usual any ideas or feedback on this will be well received.

Richard.