With unlimited transfers this season, match ups are more important than ever. The question is how to evaluate match ups, especially if you’re only an aspiring Armchair Analyst and not yet the real thing. The answer? Expected Goals (xG).

What are expected goals (xG)

The idea behind xG is simple. Every shot is awarded a probability of scoring based on the position on the field and the game situation, based on giant databases of shots from years and years of data. Then at the end of the game all the xGs from the individual shots are added up to generate the team’s xG for that game. This metric is a useful measure of the teams overall attacking or defending play, more so than just looking at how many goals a team has scored or allowed. If you’d like to learn more, there’s a nice video by MLS to explain further:

http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/04/24/what-are-expected-goals-learn-what-you-need-know-about-statistic

How to use these rankings

The rankings below use the xG metric to rank the match ups each week to help you determine which teams you should try to choose your attackers or defenders from. Each teams score is an average of their xG/g and their opponent’s xG/g separated out into offense/defense and home/away match ups. For example, if Atlanta plays NYCFC at home. Atlanta has an average home xG/g is 1.62 and NYCFC’s has an average away xG/g allowed is 0.96 for an offensive xG score of 1.29 xG. The reverse can be done to calculate their defensive score for this week. The game by game xG numbers are taken from Ben Baer’s weekly xG article.

Week 29 Offense xG Match Up Rankings

Season Offense: Match up calculated using season xG average.

Form Offense: Match up calculated using average of last 3 games.

Week 31 Rank Team Opponent H/A Season OFF Form OFF 1 Atlanta United MIN H 2.23 1.89 2 NY Red Bulls VAN H 1.61 1.79 3 Houston Dynamo SKC H 1.46 1.69 4 Colorado Rapids FCD H 1.33 1.8 5 FC Dallas COL A 1.18 1.35 6 Sporting Kansas City MIN A 1.2 1.32 7 Minnesota United SKC H 1.16 1.24 8 Sporting Kansas City HOU A 0.99 1.09 9 Vancouver Whitecaps FC NYRB A 0.93 0.86 10 Minnesota United ATL A 0.94 0.78

Week 29 Defense xG Match Up Rankings

Season Defense: Match up calculated using season xG average.

Form Defense: Match up calculated using average of last 3 games.

Week 31 Rank Team Opponent H/A Season DEF Form DEF 1 Atlanta United MIN H 0.94 0.78 2 NY Red Bulls VAN H 0.93 0.86 3 Houston Dynamo SKC H 0.99 1.09 4 Sporting Kansas City MIN A 1.16 1.24 5 Minnesota United SKC H 1.2 1.32 6 Colorado Rapids FCD H 1.18 1.35 7 FC Dallas COL A 1.33 1.8 8 Sporting Kansas City HOU A 1.46 1.69 9 Vancouver Whitecaps FC NYRB A 1.61 1.79 10 Minnesota United ATL A 2.23 1.89

Week 29 DGW Offense xG Match Up Rankings

Season Offense: Match up calculated using season xG average, average of two games this week.

Form Offense: Match up calculated using average of last 3 games, average of two games this week.

Week 31 Rank Team OFF 1 SKC 1.15 2 MIN 1.03

Week 29 DGW Defense xG Match Up Rankings

Season Defense: Match up calculated using season xG average, average of two games this week.

Form Defense: Match up calculated using average of last 3 games, average of two games this week.

Week 31 Rank Team DEF 1 SKC 1.3875 2 MIN 1.66

Author’s Corner

The #1 DGW offense this week is ATL. The #1 DGW defense this week is ATL. The highest total xG games this week are PHI v. CHI, TOR v. NER, and RSL v. SEA. The best chances for a clean sheet are SKC v. LAG, ATL v. MTL, and TOR v. MTL The biggest xG differential favorites this week are ATL v. MTL, ATL v. LAG and SKC v. LAG. There only away xG favorites this week is FCD v. MIN On the season, home offenses average 1.55 xG vs. 1.07 xG for road offenses. Over the last 3 home and away games for every team, home offenses average 1.79 xG vs. 1.07 for road offenses.

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