‘Ludicrous’ – PL journalist moots Everton ‘Champions League dream’ as official stat emerges
Premier League journalist moots Everton ‘Champions League dream’ as official statistic emerges
Everton could be chasing a “Champions League dream” had they taken their chances this season, according to Premier League journalist Alex Keble.
The Merseyside club currently sit 16th in the league table on seven points, with just two wins from their eight matches so far.
But according to the official Premier League website (17 October), Everton sit fifth in the standings when it comes to Expected Goals (xG).
“Everton’s poor return on their high level of chance creation has reached such a ludicrous degree that even Sean Dyche – an old-school manager and previous xG sceptic – has used the metric to defend his team in public,” Keble wrote for the official Premier League website.
“Everton have scored just nine goals from an xG of 14.92. Not only is this the biggest under-performance of goals in the Premier League, it also makes Everton the biggest under-performers for Expected Points (xPoints) and overall league position.
“If the xG model was real life, Everton would be 7.64 points better off and 11 places higher – all the way up in fifth and chasing a UEFA Champions League dream.”
It seems that things could have gone so differently for Dyche and his players this season, with their lack of a finisher becoming a real problem.
It has been a problem for quite some time, but the Toffees have still managed to stay in the top flight, with the likes of Abdoulaye Doucoure and Dwight McNeil producing goals from midfield.
But Dyche will want his strikers to be doing the majority of the goalscoring, with plenty of that burden falling onto the shoulders of Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
He has, however, constantly suffered with injuries during his time at the Merseyside outfit, forcing his manager to turn elsewhere for goals.
The man in the dugout brought both Beto and Youssef Chermiti to Goodison Park in the summer transfer window, but they have yet to convince the Toffees faithful that they can lead the line expertly. The club need to start finding the back of the net soon or else risk another nervy Premier League relegation battle.
