As stated in the little teaser above this will be a quick look at the top 10 goalscorers in the Premier League. But with a twist!
Instead of listing basic numbers on total goals and how many shots it has taken to score those goals, I want to level the playing field and take into account the vastly differing minutes that each player has played. Why? For it really makes no sense to treat as equal Suarez's high numbers which were recorded by playing heavy minutes with Rooney's numbers, when he has played far fewer minutes.
Welcome to the per 90 minutes world. All number will be listed per 90, I think this makes more sense than saying Torres has scored a goal every 2674 minutes or something.
Goals, Shots and Shots On Target per 90 minutes
Familiar with the bubble charts? Size of the bubble indicates goals per 90 and the colour indicates the team.
The higher a player is the more shots on target per 90 he generates, the farther right the player is the more total shots per 90 he generates.
Suarez is out on his own in terms of shots per 90, but is only 4th in SoT. Bale and Ba look pretty good in terms of SoT per 90, as does Lukaku who may need an asterix to denote his high number of late sub appearances which may very slightly skew his numbers.
Lampard is the oddity as a goalscoring midfielder. Rooney and RvP are closer in terms of performance than any media narrative will have you know.
Finally we have a little group including Michu, Benteke and Lambert who are scoring goals but aren't anywhere close to elite in terms of shots or SoT generation. This may be particularly important when trying to analyze a player like Michu who often gets touted for some form of big money move.
Michu isn't generating the shots neccessary to sustain his goalscoring form (he is the worst SoT per 90 player in the top 10), instead the Swansea man is solely relying on a very high scoring%, which long term, just cannot be sustained.
Michu is a regression case, and if a club who hasn't done it's requisite homework decides to make a large offer for the Spaniard, it may be good business for Swansea to sell.
I said these exact same words about Papiss Cisse at the end of last term. Cisse was a regression case, his scoring% regressed, his goals dried up and now he has slipped back from the public consciousness. Sell high.
Michu doesn't look great. Bale, Suarez and, surprisingly, Lukaku are players who are generating a high number of shots per 90 and this, in a way, impresses me as much as their goals tallies.
Next: Scoring %, Shooting Efficiency % for the top 10 EPL strikers