goals/assists

[NorCalBlue]

Penalties and Direct Free Kicks are unassisted, though some have argued in the past that the person who draws the foul should be credited it's never really gained traction in the official statistics. Similarly you don't officially get an assist for an own goal although you could probably mount an argument that in many cases a good in ball creates a goal and as such perhaps it should be. If the ball hits the post and ricohets out with a significant change in direction there's no assist, same if it comes back off the keeper with a significant change in direction. Also if a player disposseses an opposition player and scores directly, no assist.

You're absolutely right that several of the rules for what constitutes an assist are pretty arbitrary, which is why there are different definitions for an assist in different places. The Fantasy Premier League is a bit more generous than the IRL Premier League, which is odd, since they're both on the same website (Mendy has 4 in Fantasy, and Sane has 1 for the own goal - I believe an assist is given for winning a penalty as well). I think the rules in the World Cup are different from the Premier League, and in MLS there can be up to 2 assists given for each goal, which allows credit to be given for Silva-type passes that split open the defence, even though the player he passes to doesn't score the goal (of course there will be a knee-jerk reaction amongst many on here against anything they do differently in MLS, but I think it's a much fairer system).

 

[Harvster]

Hold Ctrl + Alt and press the E key, that should do it

Very much obliged governor, my lack of computer knowledge was driving me insané

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

The assists stat' is a bit misleading as it depends entirely on the receiver actually scoring A great pass and the receiver misses an open goal -no assist credited - (eg 3 x De Bruyne to Lukaku for Belgium in the WC). But after a poor pass where the scorer creates his own goal opportunity there's an assist!
Better to use the "Chances Created" stat' for a fairer picture.

 

[Pablo ZZZ Peroni]

You're absolutely right that several of the rules for what constitutes an assist are pretty arbitrary, which is why there are different definitions for an assist in different places. The Fantasy Premier League is a bit more generous than the IRL Premier League, which is odd, since they're both on the same website (Mendy has 4 in Fantasy, and Sane has 1 for the own goal - I believe an assist is given for winning a penalty as well). I think the rules in the World Cup are different from the Premier League, and in MLS there can be up to 2 assists given for each goal, which allows credit to be given for Silva-type passes that split open the defence, even though the player he passes to doesn't score the goal (of course there will be a knee-jerk reaction amongst many on here against anything they do differently in MLS, but I think it's a much fairer system).

I have no idea about Fantasy, but the Premier League site takes an OPTA data feed for the stats shown there. Likewise OPTA is used by the TV companies here and also lots of stats based websites. It is the OPTA definition for an assist which is the limitation.

I use lots of sites and a widely used one is transfermrkt who are a German company and doen't use an OPTA datafeed. They have a wider (and better IMO) definition for an assist. Using Sterling as an example, he had 11 PL assists last year based on OPTA but 15 on transfermrkt. The main differences are if you win a penalty and that is subsequently scored it counts as an assist. Likewise if the pressure of a cross forces an opponent into an own goal that counts as an assist as well. There are other subtle differences as well.

 

[Pablo ZZZ Peroni]

The assists stat' is a bit misleading as it depends entirely on the receiver actually scoring A great pass and the receiver misses an open goal -no assist credited - (eg 3 x De Bruyne to Lukaku for Belgium in the WC). But after a poor pass where the scorer creates his own goal opportunity there's an assist!
Better to use the "Chances Created" stat' for a fairer picture.

You are right. OPTA define "chances created" as a Key Passes.

There are a raft of other "creativity" stats which have followed on from xG within the analytics community - are xA, xG Chain, xGBuildup. These all measure a player's involvement in different stages of build-up. A good website for them is understat.

 

[kun]

Not every goal has an assist. What about goals where the goalkeeper gives the ball to the goalscorer, or the defender gives it away? Also, free-kicks and penalties officially don't have assisters either (not officially anyway, they count in fantasy football).

 

[big gaz]

40 points by January is all I want ;-)

 

[NorCalBlue]

You are right. OPTA define "chances created" as a Key Passes.

There are a raft of other "creativity" stats which have followed on from xG within the analytics community - are xA, xG Chain, xGBuildup. These all measure a player's involvement in different stages of build-up. A good website for them is understat.

Yes, xA (expected assists) is a much better stat than assists or "chances created", because it doesn't depend on how well someone else finishes (like assists) and it gives different weighting to how good the created chance is (unlike "chances created"). However, I don't think it includes penalties won, or own goals forced, like the broader (and better, I think) assist definition.