The Three Most 'Active' Shooters in Europe
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To quote me as a young adult (and again once or twice a year)…
Shots?
Shots.
One aspect of the game that I have felt transfers well to positive attacking performances is the amount a player shoots.
Now, if xG has told us anything, it’s that not all shots are created equal.
However, it’s still pretty common that the players who rack up a lot of shots are incredibly effective attacking threats.
So, I used SmarterScout to find the three players who are the most active shooters in the top five European leagues.
Now, to do that, we aren’t just looking at who gets the most shots.
An accumulative stat like that is does not give the complete picture.
Some teams attack less, so players get opportunities to shoot. Some players drop back deep to get the ball. Some teams play at a faster pace, so there’s more chances to shoot, whereas other teams slowly build up play to create chances.
As you can image, it' get’s pretty murky.
One thing I love about SmarterScout is it kinda takes care of most of that in it’s style numbers by using a ‘per attacking touch’ ratio.
So, I’ve looked at those who Smarterscout see as the most active shooters in the top European Leagues - looking at their style rating for both ‘shooting’ and ‘receiving in the box’. Their rating is a FIFA-style score out of 99 comparing their frequency to other strikers around the world.
Erling Haaland
Shooting: 99
Receiving in the box: 97
Ready for a hot take? Erling Haaland is good at soccer.
I’ll let that take stew with you.
Seriously though, Erling Haaland features in almost every one of these lists that I create.
But if you’ve seen Haaland play for even 20 minutes you’d have guessed that he’d be on this list.
Granted, the entire Dortmund side is seemingly built to get Haaland through on goal, but that doesn’t matter to me at the moment.
If I could design a striker in a lab, it’d be Erling Haaland.
He’s due for a big move this offseason too. Dortmund will want to keep him but Haaland has a €75 million release clause that will be active in 2022, so the German club should want to cash out this offseason (COVID-market aside).
Alexander Isak
Shooting: 99
Receiving in the box: 96
Release clause taketh away, release clause giveth.
If Dortmund do sell Erling Haaland, there’s a fair chance they’ll look to target ex-player Alexander Isak - who they have a €30 million buyback clause on.
So basically, when Dortmund sold Isak to Real Sociedad, they included a clause that Dortmund could buy the player back for €30 million at any time.
Isak is getting a lot of shots in Spain this season, and he’s getting good ones too. His expected goals per shot of 0.19 is bloody good - and if he can replicate that in the long term, he has potential to be special.
He’s not Haaland-level, but if Dortmund do sell, I think they’ll definitely look at getting Isak back in the fold.
Regardless, I expect big things from the Swede going forward.
You can find his cards on eBay here.
Paco Alcácer
Shooting: 91
Receiving in the box: 97
Another ex-Dortmund guy - I’m starting to sense a theme here.
Alcacer was all the rage in his 12 goals in 14 games for Dortmund while on loan a few seasons ago. And when the deal was made permanent, he kept scoring goals but slowly found himself getting replaced - and then when Haaland came along…. well, you know.
Anyway, he’s now at Villareal and has been firing in shots.
His 0.26 expected goals per shot is brilliant but at the moment he’s performing under xG.
Either way, he’s an exciting player and he’s still 27 - feels like he’s been around forever.
I can definitely see him going to somewhere in the Premier League - I think he’d do well there.
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