It’s a clash of the two teams in mid-table on Saturday when Blackpool host Swansea City in the EFL Championship. Blackpool are coming off an away victory at Stoke City, and Swansea City’s previous match was a forgettable 1-5 hammering at home against the league leaders Fulham. Both teams are far away from relegation going into the match but they are also far off the promotion play-off spots. Still, there will be something to play for in this game.
Blackpool won their last game at Bet365 Stadium, with Josh Bowler netting an 86th-minute winner. After the game, Blackpool’s record this season stood at 13 wins, nine draws, and 13 losses. Blackpool have scored 41 goals and have also conceded 41 goals this season. Blackpool are hoping for their third consecutive victory in this game.
Blackpool have not relied on a single player to score all the goals this season, as seen on the right. One player has eight goals and four players have scored seven goals each. The fact that no Blackpool player has hit double figures this season explains the overall lack of goals.
Defender Luke Garbutt is Blackpool’s most successful threat creator, and his xT score is twice the next best, which shows that Blackpool may be depending on him a little too much for chance creation. Not even a single Blackpool player has more than one assist this season, which speaks volumes about their lack of creativity in this campaign.
Swansea City come into this game after being thrashed by table-toppers Fulham at home. Joel Piroe scored Swansea’s only goal in the game. But it was clear that their defense was not good enough against the league leaders. They will want to put that result to one side and focus on winning this match. Swansea should have conceded 46 goals so far this season, but they have ended up conceding 49 goals instead.
The main reason why Swansea City are in the mid-table mediocrity is that they have performed average or close to average throughout the season, as seen in the above chart. In fact, in some categories, they are well below average.
Both Blackpool and Swansea will want to win this game to get away from any relegation battle later in the season. For that, both teams must start performing starting from this match. Both teams have games in hand.
