Erling Haaland scores a lot but does anyone take note of the number of shots he takes? After the first 6 games in the 25-26 Premier League season, he has taken 28 shots. To put that in perspective, in the same time frame, the whole Brentford squad has taken 49 shots.

Of those 28 shots, Haaland has scored 8 goals, which is more goals that most Premier League squads have scored all season so far, including newly promoted side Burnley. It is evident what a key player Haaland is to Manchester City’s success.

In this article, we breakdown Haaland’s chances so far this season. To note, all data in this article is as of the first 6 Premier League matches played this 25-26 season.

Haaland’s Shot Volume and Goal Conversion

On average so far this season, Haaland takes 4.6 shots per match and scores 1.3 goals per match in the Premier League.

Haaland’s average distance in yards per goal is 10.9 yards, while his average shot is 10.7 yards from goal.

In only one instance this Premier League season has Haaland took a shot from a distance greater than 18-yards. In this case, he took a shot from 21 yards out against Brighton, which missed the target. All other chances have been from 18-yards or less and inside the box.

Haaland’s Shooting Breakdown: Headers, Left Foot, Right Foot

When we dive a bit deeper into the individual chances, 10 of them have been from his head.

However, of those 10 headers, one has been saved, one has been blocked and the remaining 8 have missed the target. Of those 8 misses, 7 have been from within 9 yards from goal.

Haaland is yet to score a goal using his head so far this 25/26 Premier League season.

Haaland is yet to score a goal using his head so far this Premier League season. If he can start converting some of these header chances, his goal metrics will only be that more impressive.

Additionally, Haaland is heavily dependent on his left foot for shooting and scoring. Out of all 28 shots so far in the Premier League, Haaland has only taken one with his right foot.

Surprisingly enough, he scored that chance, a right footed strike against Arsenal from 11 yards out on September 21^st. Maybe he should use that right foot more often, so far this season it has a 100% record.

When you take away the 10 headers and 1 right foot shot, all other 17 shots Haaland has taken have been with his left foot. And of those 17 left footed shots, 7 have resulted in goals.

Haaland’s Expected Goals (xG) vs Actual Goals

He leads the league in xG (or expected goals) with 7.5. For those of you who don’t know, xG stands for expected goals.

Each chance is assigned a probability that the shot will result in a goal. Many factors contribute to determining the probability, such as distance from goal, lead up play, body part of shot, etc. The higher the xG of a single chance, the more likely that the average player would score in the same scenario.

Back to Haaland, with an xG of 7.5, the data analysis model used by Opta means that out of all his shots, it would be expected for him to score 7.5 goals. With 8 goals so far this Premier League season, he is performing (or scoring) 0.5 more goals than expected.

What is interesting though, is if you look at the individual chances, there are about 3 shots with high xG ratings that Haaland didn’t score.

Against Wolves on opening weekend, Haaland had a header from 5 yards out that he missed (xG of 0.68). Against Tottenham on August 23^rd, Haaland had a header from 6 yards out that missed the target (xG of 0.47).

And finally, on September 14^th against United, Haaland hit the post from 4 yards out (xG of 0.93). In all those cases, you would expect Haaland to score.

Despite these chances missed, his G-xG is still positive, meaning he’s scored more goals than expected. As a result, he’s scored various goals with lower xG ratings than the three chances noted above that he’s missed.

Final Thoughts: Haaland’s Scoring Impact on Manchester City

Well, that’s it for this article. In this post, we take a deep dive into the shooting and goal scoring data of Erling Haaland after the first 6 Premier League matches this 25/26 season.

So far, Erling has scored 8 goals from 28 chances. On average, his goals have been 10.9 yards from goal. All but one of the goals has been scored with his left foot (the other being his right foot). He’s yet to score a header goal, despite having 10 header chances so far.

In total, Haaland’s xG is 7.5 for the first 6 Premier League matches played vs. a total of 8 goals scored.

Despite a few close range misses that you would expect Erling to score, he’s still got a xG – G of +0.5 which puts him in the top 50 for xG – G in the League (as he scores so many goals, no one scrutinizes his xG – G rating too much).

What are your thoughts when reading this data? If you’re a City fan, do you have any critiques of Haaland? Or as long as he keeps scoring, you’re happy? If you are not a City fan, would you trade your top striker for Haaland? Were there any facts in this article that surprised you? Let us know in the comments!

Stay tuned for future posts and please send us a message if there is a specific topic you would like to see covered. Additionally, if you have some ideas on how to improve these articles, please send them our way too.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read these posts!

JC

All data in this article is from fbref.com so, thanks to them!