It’s a meeting of the two teams that are in the top half of the table. Coventry City host Sheffield United on Saturday afternoon in the EFL Championship. The last time these two teams played each other, it was a dull goalless draw at Bramall Lane. So, both teams will want to forget that match and look to win this game. Coventry are coming into this game with a 0-1 home loss against Luton Town. Sheffield United won their last match by thrashing Middlesbrough 4-1 at home.
Coventry City lost their second consecutive game in the last match against Luton Town. Coventry City should have scored 51 goals so far this campaign, but they have massively underperformed on that, scoring only 44 times – a difference of -7. Because of this underperformance in front of the goal, Coventry City are six points off the promotion play-off spots.
On the right, we can see that Matt Godden has outperformed his xG of 7.120 by three goals, scoring 10. What’s more, he’s shot very efficiently, having taken only 41 shots to score the 10 goals. But the team’s top goalscorer is Viktor Gyokores, who has netted 12 goals, the same as what xG predicted. However, Gyokores and Godden haven’t received support from other Coventry City players. Apart from the aforementioned duo, none of them have hit more than three goals apiece.
Gustavo Hamer is Coventry City’s most successful threat creator, and he has created nearly twice the threats of the next best Coventry City player, defender Todd Kane. Hamer generates most of the threat from his corners. He is also the most successful threat creator from open play this season for Coventry City.
Sheffield United are coming into this game with a 4-1 victory at home against Middlesbrough. Sander Berge, Billy Sharp, Jack Robinson, and Morgan Gibbs-White netted the goals for Sheffield United. With this victory, Sheffield United have won 16 games, drawn nine, and lost 10. Despite this big result, Sheffield United have underperformed on their xG. They should have scored 52 goals by now, but they have scored only 49.
Given above is the chart of Sheffield United’s performances as a team this season. One possible reason why Sheffield United have underperformed on their xG could be that they are scoring only 0.12 goals per shot taken – a goal every eight shots or so. The elite shooting teams average a goal every 4-5 shots.
Both Coventry City and Sheffield United will look to win this important game for pretty much the same reason, which is to strengthen their promotion play-offs hopes.
