The key statistics behind Blackpool's promising start to the Championship campaign

Sitting in the top half of the table after 11 games, Neil Critchley’s men have adjusted well to life back in the second tier following last season’s promotion from League One.

The Seasiders ground out their fourth win of the campaign on Saturday with a hard-earned three points against Lancashire rivals Blackburn Rovers.

Pool have also drawn three and lost four so far, leaving them in 12th - just three points adrift of the play-off spots.

Seven points, meanwhile, separates Critchley’s men and the bottom three, which includes fellow newly-promoted side Peterborough United.

Hull City, who also joined Pool and Posh in moving up a division, sit just one point and one position above the dropzone.

As we head into another international break, with no game until Saturday, October 16, The Gazette’s Blackpool FC writer Matt Scrafton takes a look at some of the key numbers behind the club’s start to the season.

TEAM STATS

For those cynics amongst you that pay no attention to the use of stats in football, fair enough. I’m not here to convert you.

But what I will say is that while stats like these don’t always tell the whole story, they can often prove useful to give us a general view of how things are going and whether or not your side are over or under-performing.

There will always be anomalies, of course, but over an extended period of time the sides that create the most chances, especially those of higher quality, and concede the fewest, will tend to perform better over the course of a season.

If your side continues to create a high number of chances despite struggling in the league table, that can give supporters - and those in charge of clubs - confidence results will eventually turn themselves around, as they did for Blackpool in League One last season.

The most common metric used by statisticians is Expected Goals (xG), which measures the quality of a shot based on several variables such as assist type, shot angle and distance from goal, whether it was a headed shot and whether it was defined as a big chance.

Adding up a player or team’s expected goals can give us an indication of how many goals a player or team should have scored on average, given the shots they have taken.

According to Opta Analyst, Blackpool’s xG (for) stands at 0.21 so far this season, which is the 14th best record of any side in the Championship.

This gives us a good indication that Blackpool’s current position of 12th is about right given their early displays.

However, Blackpool’s xG (against) is 0.39, which is the second worst record in the division, meaning Critchley’s men are currently allowing opposition sides far too many opportunities.

While this is clearly something to keep an eye on, this might mainly be a result of Blackpool’s slow, jittery start to the season, where they were punished for playing out from the back and being left wide open on the counter.

In the past few weeks, the Seasiders have been far better defensively, conceding just three times in their last four games and keeping clean sheets against Fulham and Barnsley.

According to whoscored.com, Blackpool have produced an average of 10.3 shots per game, which puts them 18th on this particular metric alone.

On the flip side, the Seasiders have conceded an average of 14.5 shots per game, which backs up the xG data previously referred to. Only Reading and Derby County have a worse record, so this is something to keep an eye on.

Blackpool’s average possession of 42.9 per cent is only lowered by Saturday’s opponents Blackburn Rovers, although this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as the Seasiders often play on the counter-attack and are happy for the other team to have the ball, to allow them to press and win the ball back high up the pitch, where goals are far more likely to come as a result.

Blackpool are fifth in the league for average tackles per game (16.3) and they’re eighth for interceptions (10.2).

The men in tangerine also rank highly for average dribbles with 8.5 per game, which also puts them eighth.

INDIVIDUAL STATS

It won’t come as a great surprise that ‘ginger Pele’ Shayne Lavery ranks highly in the division in a number of categories.

The Northern Irishman, who suffered a worrying-looking hamstring injury on Saturday, has the fourth highest xG in the Championship with 0.73.

Only Cameron Jerome, Aleksander Mitrobic and Ben Brereton-Diaz rank better, so he’s in fine company.

Lavery has also performed well for carries, producing an average of six per 90 minutes, which is the 19th best in the league.

This is key to helping his side up the pitch and towards the opposition penalty area, where the 22-year-old comes alive.

Josh Bowler is Blackpool’s highest performer in this category though, producing 16 carries per 90 minutes with an average carry distance of 14.1m, putting him fourth in the division.

Keshi Anderson, meanwhile, ranks seventh, with 15 carries with an average carry distance of 13.73m.

Of Bowler’s 20 carries, 13 ended in shots while seven ended with a key pass, but no assists.

This accurately sums up Bowler’s current performances, where the winger is a constant threat and is vital in getting Pool up the pitch. But his end product at the all-important moment needs working on.

Nevertheless, Bowler is still performing well, ranking ninth for expected assists with 1.04 created per 90 minutes.

Anderson, meanwhile, has produced five shots and 11 key passes from his 16 carries. The winger has been an impressive performer for Critchley’s men so far this season, holding down his position over on the left wing - giving Pool a threat on both sides of the pitch.

It also goes without saying that Chris Maxwell has been another key performer so far this term.

The skipper boasts a goals preventeion rate of 3.1, which is the fourth highest in the Championship behind Coventry’s Simon Moore (3.2), Bristol City’s Daniel Bentley (3.3) and Bradley Collins, of Barnsley (5).

This metric is the number of goals that a goalkeeper was expected to concede compared to the number that they actually conceded.

Scoring five of Blackpool’s 11 league goals, Lavery naturally ranks high for contribution, having scored 45 per cent of his side’s overall tally.

Marvin Ekpiteta, Anderson and Richard Keogh are also among the club’s best performing players, according to whoscored.com.

Maxwell and Luke Garbutt are the only two players to start every league game so far. Anderson has featured in all 11, but came off the bench in one game.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

According to whoscored.com, Blackpool’s main strengths are their counter-attacks and their ability to come back from losing positions.

However, according to the stats, they need to improve on keeping possession of the ball, defending against attacks down the wings, long shots, aerial duels and set-pieces.

In terms of their style of play, the main pattern that has been picked up is Blackpool’s tendency to attack down the left.

Critchley’s side often attempt through-balls, like to play in their own half and look to play the offside trap. Opposition sides, meanwhile, tend to play aggressively against them.

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