The 2024 Premier Division statistical review – formations, expected goals/points, passes, discipline and duels

The period after Christmas and before New Year gives an opportunity to relax, do some light reading and reflect on the year just gone by. So we have done just that by delving into the Wyscout records for the Premier Division of the League of Ireland 2024 campaign and compiled this summary article on the stats for the year.

1.0 Team statistics

1.1 Great expectations

1.1.1 Expected goals

Shamrock Rovers topped the expected goals (xG) charts with 60.5 (their actual goals scored was only 50). Dundalk had the worst xG with 36 but underperformed that tally by only scoring 23 times.

1.1.2 Expected conceded goals

While Shels pretty much matched their xG to actual goals (40.6 to 40), defensively they significantly outperformed their xG conceded (41.5) by only letting in 27 goals (the fewest of any team in the Premier Division.

1.1.3 Expected points

Who doesn’t love some xG nonsense? Well check out the expected points table. By looking at the expected goals scored and conceded, Wyscout has extrapolated expected points and the xPoints table puts Shelbourne down in fifth place – please don’t tell Damien Duff.

Shamrock Rovers top the xPoints table with 65.8, +4.8 expected points above what they actually got. St. Patrick’s Athletic were second (57/-2.0), Derry City third on (55.5/+0.5) with Galway United fourth (53.6/+1.6). Shels’ expected points was 48.5 but on the pitch they earned 14.5 more than that to win the title.

Looking at the bottom of the xPoints table, there are Sligo Rovers (37.8/-11.2) with Waterford above them on 40.7 (-4.3). Dundalk meanwhile earned 42.1 expected points (16.1 more than they actually got).

1.2 Formations

The most popular formation was 4-2-3-1 with eight of the ten Premier Division teams favouring this system the most. This is based on the average point of all actions where a player touched the ball. 

Shelbourne with a 4-4-2 (39% of the time) and Shamrock Rovers’ 3-4-2-1 (35%) were the outliers here. However while 4-2-3-1 was favoured the most by Galway United (44%), they went 4-4-2 41% of the time. Drogheda United did deploy a back three 3-4-1-2 formation 16% of the time.

1.3 Passing

As has been the case under Stephen Bradley in recent seasons, Shamrock Rovers topped the attacking stats. 

On passing, the Hoops had 467 passes per 90 minutes with a 84% accuracy, with Shels second (399/82%). Galway United were bottom on this chart with 232 passes per 90 minutes with a 69% accuracy and the longest average pass length (24m).

However, Derry City had the highest percentage of all teams for long passes (56%).

Rovers had the most passes into the final third, progressive passes, deep completions and through passes (Bohs were second in the table for the last of these categories). The top five passing players were all from Shamrock Rovers.

1.4 Possession and crossing

The Hoops had the highest ball possession with 62%, nearly seven percentage points above second placed Derry City. The bottom three in terms of possession were Dundalk (48%), Drogheda United (39.7%) and Galway United (39.1%).

Derry City topped the crossing charts with 19.6 per 90 minutes ahead of Shamrock Rovers (17.5) and Galway United (16.8).

1.5 Discipline

Shels were the most fouled team in the league, earning 10.62 fouls on average per 90 minutes but no team got more red cards (five) / yellow cards (109) than Damien Duff’s Shelbourne. 

St. Patrick’s Athletic were the only team not to have a player sent off but it was Galway United who had the fewest yellow cards (71).

Sligo Rovers averaged 12.9 fouls per game while Derry City had the smallest average with 9.99 per 90 minutes.

2.0 Player stats

2.1 Goals

Pat Hoban and Padraig Amond finished joint top scorer with 14 goals but Hoban averaged 0.49 goals per 90 minutes, compared with Amond’s 0.36.

Johnny Kenny, who scored 13 in the league, scored 0.63 per 90 minutes and topped both the shot list with 81 (one clear of his teammate Graham Burke and eight ahead of Brandon Kavangh) and the touches in the penalty area list (5.25 per 90).

2.2 Assists

Bohs’ Dayle Rooney topped the assist chart with ten, three clear of Brandon Kavanagh with Dylan Watts third on six. Kavanagh topped the key passes charts just ahead of Watts.

2.3 Crosses/Dribbles

Looking at crosses, Shamrock Rovers’ Darragh Burns, with 6.14 crosses per 90 minutes, topped that list ahead of Derry’s Paul McMullan (5.33) and Jake Mulraney (4.48) from St. Patrick’s Athletic.

On dribbles, Burns was number one (8.3 per 90 mins), ahead of Waterford’s Maleace Asamoah (7.73) and Hoops teammate Neil Farrugia (7.28)

2.4 Duels

St. Patrick’s Athletic duo, Alex Sjöberg and Jamie Lennon, were one and two in the defensive duel chart (one when the opponent team had the ball) ahead of Shamrock Rovers’ Darragh Nugent.

The top three for offensive duels (a duel when the player had possession of the ball) was Graham Burke (15.2 per 90 mins), Frantz Pierrot (15.1) and Neil Farrugia (14.4).

No surprise Galway United 1.9m (6 ft 6 in) beanpole Patrick Hickey was the best for aerial duels (24.3 per 90), ahead of 1.8m (5 ft 11in) Padraig Amond (13.6).

Counting down our most read articles from 2024 - here is our Top 10: www.extratime.com/articles/351...

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— extratime.com (@extratime.com) 27 December 2024 at 13:30