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Manchester United are in the business end of the season and Erik ten Hag’s side have battled through a gruelling schedule to get to this point.
Injuries in defence have seen some fans lose faith in the squad’s ability to end the campaign on a high, but a look at the data suggests that the Red Devils might just be getting their most important players back at the perfect time.
SofaScore makes the Expected goals value of every shot in the Premier League publicly available, and that has allowed us to comb through the data and find out which attacking partnerships are the most fruitful.
A shot combination is defined as an instance where one player, the shot assister, passes to the shooter. We can then take the xG value of the shot to be the result of said combination.
It will come as a surprise to no one that Kevin be Bruyne and Erling Haaland top the list, with 5.88xG coming from shot combinations between the pair. Outstanding finisher that the Norwegian is, Manchester City have overperformed that number by scoring eight times from their 22 combinations leading to a shot.
And as it turns out, there are only two partnerships who yield a higher number of shot combinations than the Sky Blues duo, with former Man United player Andreas Pereira setting up Aleksander Mitrovic for 23 shots.
The xG value of their combinations is just 1.83, however. That is largely due to their most common shot situations being from set pieces, which tend to create only very low-value opportunities.
Topping the league for shot combinations is Manchester United pair Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford. The Portuguese star has played in Rashford for 26 shooting opportunities, with a cumulative xG value of 5.28 – not far off the City pair.
Like De Bruyne, Fernandes’ most common means of assist is a pass from open play, which accounts for the high-value chance creation. United are roughly doing as well as expected in terms of finishing these chances, with five goals coming from the Bruno/Rashford combination.
When it comes to shot combinations, it is important to credit both the passer and the receiver, as it is the job of both players to fashion the chance in the first place.
It is therefore a testament to both Bruno’s creative drive and Rashford rediscovered hunger that the pair have managed to become such a lethal partnership this season.
Rashford has also been assisted three times by Christian Eriksen in the Premier League as a result of only five combinations with the Dane. That suggests that the Red Devils may well have another fruitful route to goal once the two players get to spend more time on the pitch together.
With Eriksen making a triumphant return against Nottingham Forest and Rashford available for selection once again, that will likely be a combination Erik ten Hag will look to exploit more often.
Unsurprisingly, Bruno Fernandes is the shot assister in Man United’s next two most prominent combinations, although neither have borne fruit as of yet in the Premier League.
Fernandes has instigated 14 shot combinations with trigger-happy Antony. The Brazilian looks to be coming into form of late, but that is yet to be reflected in his partnership with United’s number eight.
A curiosity in the data can be found in the shot combinations between the Portugal star and Anthony Martial. The two have spent precious little time on the same pitch, owing to the Frenchman’s injury issues this season, but have still combined five times, for an xG value of 1.38.
Given that the two have only shared the field for just 611 minutes this season, had he actually managed to take to the pitch in every Premier League match Fernandes did, the pair would be expected to have had roughly 21.4 shot combinations, with an xG value of around 5.47 based on the current data – among the most dangerous combinations in the division.
Of course, extrapolating in such a way and over such a small sample size is an unreliable means of making predictions, but it does pose the question of “what might have been?” for the Frenchman. Had his injury issues not been as woeful, he could well be enjoying a resurgence comparable only to that of Marcus Rashford.
What is of note is that – barring any injuries this week – against Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup, all players to feature in Man United’s most fruitful shot combinations will take to the field at the same time for the first time since the 6th of January, during a 3-1 win over Everton in the first round.
If that quintet can stay fit, Manchester United fans could be in for a high-scoring end to the season.
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The post Analysis of Man United’s shot combinations bodes well for season climax appeared first on Man United News And Transfer News | The Peoples Person.
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| Article Name | Analysis: Man United have their most dangerous five fit for the first time since January |
| Description |
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| Author Name | Candyboy |
| Published On | April 20, 2023 |
| Post Category |
Man Utd
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