Season Review 2019/20

Welcome

Welcome to Stats Perform’s English Football League - League One season review for the curtailed 2019/20 league season.

Interactive and showcasing a host of detailed performance metrics, this report provides insight into the league’s standout performers, applying innovative frameworks produced by our team of AI scientists.

Within this review, we share a comprehensive breakdown of performance at the key ends of the pitch, as well as sharing detailed insight on team style, both in and out of possession. Detailed player analysis also features, with key metrics ranked across different positions.

Notable additions to our reviews this summer include details on the teams most effective at generating opportunities from high turnovers, together with insights into how each team approached the changes to the goal kick rule. We also apply metrics to highlight the ball carrying players who were effective at generating goalscoring opportunities through running with the ball.

These new features reflect Stats Perform’s ongoing commitment to further explore how performance data can inform a club’s decision-making across performance analysis, recruitment and long-term strategic planning.

We hope you find some interesting insights from this review.

Team

Expected Goals (For)

Overview

Key Points:

• Ranked by league position, this table outlines teams’ performances in front of goal, from both open play and set piece situations.

• Neither of the teams that secured automatic promotion to the Championship ranked in the league’s top eight for open play xG. Fifth-placed Portsmouth generated the highest open play xG output, 39.2 from 350 shots, however they scored four fewer goals than their projection.

• Peterborough’s players proved to be clinical in front of goal, scoring 16 more open play goals than they would have perhaps expected based on the quality of chances they created. The Posh scored 52 open play goals, more than any other team.

• Set pieces played a key role in Rotherham’s promotion. 43% of the Millers’ xG came from set pieces, the highest ratio in the league, which resulted in 25 goals. In contrast, champions Coventry generated 81% of their xG from open play.

• Wycombe secured promotion to the second tier of English football for the first time via the play-offs, despite recording the lowest number of shots and xG output from open play in the league. They were another team to profit from set pieces, ranking second for both shots and goals scored from set plays.

• Over a third of the teams in League One underperformed on their set piece xG by more than two clear goals.

Expected Goals For

		Set Play : Total	Open Play			Set Play
	Team	xG Ratio	Shots	xG	Goals	SP Shots	SP xG	SP Goals
	Coventry City	0.19	325	31.7	37	116	8.4	7
	Rotherham United	0.43	301	28.7	29	190	24.5	25
	Wycombe Wanderers	0.33	247	22.0	18	184	14.8	15
	Oxford United	0.25	355	36.8	47	146	13.0	7
	Portsmouth	0.27	350	39.2	35	148	16.4	12
	Fleetwood Town	0.24	317	38.0	36	121	12.2	11