Bournemouth are currently second in the EFL Championship. One big reason why Bournemouth are second is that their striker, Dominic Solanke, is the league’s second-highest goalscorer, only behind Mitrovic. The former Chelsea and Liverpool forward has netted 23 times for the team from the south coast of England, which is easily the highest for Bournemouth this season. It is also his second consecutive career-best season, having surpassed his previous season total already.
Dominic Solanke has scored 23 goals for Bournemouth this season, propelling the team to second on the table. They currently occupy the other automatic promotion spot behind Fulham. Solanke has scored 0.6 goals per game this season, which equates to an average of three goals every five matches. Solanke is also outperforming his xG numbers of 0.58 per 90 (which is not by much, especially when comparing Fulham marksman Aleksandar Mitrovic). If he maintains this goalscoring ratio, then Dominic Solanke could end up with around 29 or 30 goals this season.
Every single one of Dominic Solanke’s goals has come from inside the box, which means he knows exactly where to shoot from. Like many strikers, Solanke has missed a few big chances, but thankfully for him and Bournemouth, these misses have been seldom this campaign. He has also managed to score shots with xG less than 0.3, meaning he has scored tough chances as well this season.
Dominic Solanke has been at his most threatening with his passes during the first quarter of an hour and just after the beginning of the fifth quarter (61st minute to the 75th minute). His pass start locations seem to be most threatening just outside the opponents’ penalty box and inside the box as well. As a result, he has provided six assists in addition to the 23 goals he has netted so far in this campaign. His forward passes has generated an xT score of over three.
This season has been Dominic Solanke’s career-best with 29 goals and assists. What’s more, 21 of his 23 goals have not come from the penalty spot. He has around 0.82 goals and assists per 90 this campaign, which is the highest in his professional career so far. If you exclude penalties, this number drops to 0.76, which is still very good. Solanke will hope that his goals will fire Bournemouth to the Premier League next season on an automatic basis. Thankfully for Bournemouth, they have played the joint-fewest games so far this season, meaning they have games in hand to distance themselves from their other promotion rivals.
