October 18 – Napoli, out gunned by Manchester City in the Champions League last night, nevertheless lead a ranking of European clubs for the highest figures for shots on target per match this season.
Napoli on average are getting 8.9 shots on goal and are followed by in the ranking by Ajax (8.5) and Man City (8.0).
Using InStat data, the CIES Football Observatory have ranked the top 100 teams in Europe. The researchers note: “The number of shots on target correlates inversely with the average distance of shots attempted. The best performing teams not only attempt more shots overall, but shoot on average from a closer range than less competitive sides. Consequently, the percentage of their shots that reach the target is generally higher.”
Looking at the clubs by league, the Premier League has five clubs in the Top 50 – Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester United. Chelsea fail to make the top 100, though fast improving Newcastle United are the other English Premier League club that make it into the top 100.
With few exceptions, Europe’s biggest clubs are all represented in the top 20. Barcelona and Bayern are ranked equally at 6th, Real Madrid are 8th, Paris St Germain are 11th and Juventus are 16th.
Serie A has six clubs in the Top 100, compared to five from La Liga, three from the Bundesliga and two from Ligue 1.
Dutch clubs rank 1st and fourth with PSV. Scotland’s Celtic also rank high at 5th.
Source: CIES Football Observatory
See the full ranking at http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2017/199/en/
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