Huddersfield Town drew with Southampton in their third Premier League game. It was one of the best 0-0 games I’ve ever seen, with plenty of chances and action. I’ve gone through the statistics websites and pulled out the five most interesting stats from the game and looked at what they mean.

We put a lot of crosses into the box

Squawka shows we played 32 crosses during the Southampton home game. Southampton managed just eight. It’s been noticeable that we’ve changed our attacking style this season and often look to get the ball into the air and try to get Mounié on the end of it.

Looking at the position the crosses came in from and where they ended up shows that we’re now playing to Mounié’s strength in the air. While we didn’t get the goal we wanted against Southampton, if we can keep on giving him this kind of service then I’m sure he’ll score plenty.

Tommy Smith played much higher up the pitch

Tommy Smith’s heat maps from the first three Premier League games on Sofascore show that his average position was much further up the pitch against Southampton. Because we were away from home the direction of the Crystal Palace game is reversed (thanks to Trev for pointing this out on Twitter) , but if you flip it over in your head, you can see he was much more adventurous against Southampton.

I think Smith has been rushed back from his injury due to our lack of cover in the right back area, but he looked like he was closer to match fitness on Saturday. There were some signs that he’s still not there (he got caught out of position a few times) but the international break should give him chance to get fully fit. If not Florent Hadergjonaj might threaten to take his place in the team.

The xG model shows that Town were the better team

The graphic above from Understat.com shows the “expected goals” (xG) score for Huddersfield and Southampton. It’s hard to see from the picture, but it plots the number of shots and shows that Town had more shots (16 v 6) and on average Town would have scored 1.59 goals from the chances they created. Not that you can score 0.59 of a goal, but you get what I mean.

So despite Alan Shearer suggesting we rode our luck on Match of the Day, it seems that Southampton are the ones that should be most grateful to have come away with a point.

The BBC have written a good explanation of what expected goals means, so I’ll not get too deep into it here. There are many critics and fans of this system. I think it’s an interesting way of looking at who had the best chances in a game but it often doesn’t tell the whole story.

We need to play a proper “number 10”

This heat map from WhoScored.com shows the Huddersfield Town team when in possession against Southampton. The green blob nearest the Southampton goal shows that Mounié was a bit isolated.

I think this is partly the result of Tom Ince playing number 10. Ince had a good game but drifted into the flanks to support the wide-men. This meant we didn’t have anyone close enough to Mounié. Playing Kasey Palmer or Hamed Sabiri will mean we’ve got a more natural number 10, who can link play between midfield and the main striker.

Town are currently playing far above their individual abilities

Transfer mrkt is a website that estimates the value of players. Their figures show Southampton’s squad as being valued at £177.39m more than Town’s. While these figures might not be 100% accurate, it does give an impression of the huge disparity between the market values of the two teams.

Town’s team might not have many players that are (currently) household names but they’ve shown no fear in the opening few games and got results from teams that have been far more expensively assembled.

David Wagner has done an amazing job of getting the right players in and making them play above themselves. It’s easy to forget just how incredible his achievements have been. To match, and for periods outplay, a team like Southampton is incredible given we only escaped League One a few seasons ago.