A response to last weekends debacle was needed on Good Friday against King's Lynn and although it may have seemed like Notts flattered to deceive in the 4-1 win the stats suggest they probably performed better than it felt when watching the game live.
The Linnets are not known for having a particularly high press and that would have played a part in Notts having the thick end of 72% possession.
This is also apparent when analysing the PPDA stats, King's Lynn allowing Notts 17.54 passes per attacking action. This would be indicative of a team happy to sit back in a mid/low block, looking to counter attack on the back of any lost possession by the opposition.
Notts have by far the highest number of passes in the league and managed to string together 629 with 87.60% accuracy.
Again, a lack of any real press meant Notts had a little more time to keep possession when looking to play through the lines but with Lynn playing a very compact 4-1-4-1 it meant that Notts were playing a few more long passes than they would normally, especially diagonals where both Richardson and Chicksen were allowed to find space higher up the pitch.
I know there are some that feel Notts generally play most passes along the back line which is a fair observation, but it is often done to switch play and look to open up the spaces between and beyond the oppositions lines.
Of the 629 passes made by Notts in this game we can see from the chart below that 64 were into the final third and 101 were deemed 'progressive', where the distance of the pass from the starting point and the next touch is at least 30 meters closer to the opposition goal line.
As well as the passing metrics shown in the chart below the rest of them are broken down as follows showing pass type, pass qty and pass accuracy:
Forward passes - 209 | 73.68%
Back passes - 92 | 100%
Lateral passes - 260 | 93.85%
Long passes - 66 | 54.55%
Smart passes - 5 | 20%
One thing we can definitely take away from these stats is that pass accuracy reduces when playing long which in turn will reduce the opportunity to create high value chances. Of course we should also be mindful of the fact that a long ball in the right area at the right time can be highly effective. This is where game management comes into play along with the need for players to make the right choices at critical times.
Key match stats.
Points needed updated and ultimately it's looking like anything between 3rd and 5th place is possible and 18 points from the remaining 6 games would make things very interesting.
Click on the legend tags at the top to filter options.
Progress updated and Notts remain in 6th place but with no game on Monday a chance for Grimsby to leapfrog Notts away at King's Lynn, but they would have played a game more.
National League results tracker updated. Some horrible red numbers on there for this season.
Goal segment chart:
Six game segments updated. 3 Points from 2 games in this final 8 game segment.
Player stats updated:
As usual this is the new table that is also available to view on the player stats page of the website here. There will also be separate tables for the two cup competitions.
Goals and assists chart.
Goal scatter charts updated.
You can hover on the dots (tap if on a touch screen) to view details for each goal.
xG (expected goals):
Key xG match stats below and a few big chances for Notts. Kyle Wootton's goal recorded a 0.72 xG value which I think is the highest non penalty xG chance by a Notts player this season. An xG value of just 0.02 for Aaron Nemane's goal showing just how well taken it was.
Gold Omotayo's opener had an xG value of 0.50, just over half of the Linnet's overall match xG.
Player xG Stats:
National League goal scorers includes cup games, penalties and own goals.
Ian Burchnall's record updated after 65 games.
A quick note to remind everyone that myself and @colin_sisson will be doing a Twitter Spaces broadcast via @Analysts_Bar in the next couple of days. We will be focusing on this game, diving a little deeper into the stats and data and taking a closer look at some of the player stats for both teams. We will also be open for listener questions so if there is anything about the stats and data you don't quite understand or there's something you'd like to contribute it will be a great opportunity to get involved.
We will update everyone once we have a definite time for the broadcast but it would be great if you could follow Analysts Bar on Twitter for additional updates.
As always thanks for reading.
COYP!
Richard