football stats beyond goals

goals can fool you, a team gets a few lucky finishes and suddenly looks elite when theyre barely making chances. i followed a side through a scoring drought and their set pieces kept causing problems (corners mostly), results improved before their open play changed much

XG merchants again

XG covers it.

Possession on its own tells you very little, ngl. A team can have less of the ball, let the other side pass it around outside the box, then make the better openings when they get forward. I look at shot quality and where the chances are coming from, and defensively whether they’re giving up anything dangerous.

A few tackles in your own half don’t say much if the other team is getting clean looks in the box.

Ngl, I've seen teams dominate possession and still do almost nothing dangerous with it.