Thursday, September 29, 2022 at 15:10• Guy Habets

PSV scored in the first seven games of the Eredivisie season almost seven times more than could be expected on the basis of Expected Goals. This is evident from figures from Football International, which listed the interesting statistics of all clubs in the Eredivisie. This shows that the Eindhoven players are very effective, that Ajax has the least to fear from opponents and that Feyenoord mainly uses a lot of players.

The Expected Goals figure is compiled based on the chances a team gets. For example, a penalty kick yields 0.8 Expected Goal points, as it has been scientifically proven that eighty percent of penalty kicks are used. At 21.3, the Expected Goal figure of leader PSV is significantly lower than the number of goals the club scored in the first seven league matches: 28. That difference between the number of goals and the number of expected goals is the largest of all Eredivisie clubs. and shows that the formation of coach Ruud van Nistelrooij is especially effective: chances deliver a goal faster at PSV.

According to the statistics, Ajax has things in order, especially from a defensive point of view. The team from Amsterdam, who currently occupy second place in the Eredivisie on goal difference, only received 52 shots against this season. That is by far the fewest of all clubs at the highest level in the Netherlands, as the number two on that list received fourteen more shots. In addition, the figures also refute the image of a less performing Dusan Tadic. The Serbian captain of Ajax has an Expected Assist rating of 5.4, which is at least 1.7 more than any other Eredivisie player.

Finally, it is striking at Feyenoord that trainer Arne Slot uses as many players as possible. The coach from Bergentheim had 35 substitution opportunities in the first seven games and he used them all. Partly because of this, 27 players have already played for the club from Rotterdam South this season and Feyenoord has therefore deployed the most players of all Eredivisie clubs. Of the 35 switch options mentioned earlier, Slot used seven to switch Danilo. Like Jonathan de Guzman of Sparta, he was sidelined in every game. Usually that meant a substitute for Santiago Giménez, the striker from Mexico.