Football stats glossary
34 metrics that appear across xG Stat, each with a one-sentence definition, what it is genuinely useful for, and how far you can push it before it stops telling you anything.
- Expected Goal Involvement FormExpected goal involvement form is a five bar strip showing what a player's chances were worth in each of their last five matches.
- Expected Goal Involvements, Last 5Expected goal involvements across a player's last five matches, the same window as the form bars expressed as a single number.
- Fixture DifficultyFixture difficulty rates each upcoming opponent by their attacking and defensive expected goals strength rather than by league position.
- Goal InvolvementsGoal involvements combine a player's goals and assists into a single count of direct attacking output.
- Minutes PlayedMinutes played is the total time a player has spent on the pitch this season, including added time.
- Per 90Per 90 restates a season total as a rate per ninety minutes played, so players with very different amounts of game time can be compared directly.
- Expected GoalsExpected goals measures the quality of a chance as the probability that a shot of that type is scored, so a shot worth 0.5 xG should be scored about half the time.
- Non-Penalty Expected GoalsNon-penalty expected goals is a player's expected goals with penalties removed, since a spot kick is worth roughly 0.78 xG on its own.
- Post-Shot xG DeltaPost-shot expected goals delta is post-shot xG minus xG, so a positive figure means a player's ball striking adds value to the chances they get.
- Post-Shot Expected GoalsPost-shot expected goals values a shot after it has been struck, taking placement and power into account, so only shots on target carry any value.
- Set-Piece Expected GoalsSet-piece expected goals is the share of a team's expected goals total that came from corners, free kicks and throw-ins, rather than open play.
- Expected AssistsExpected assists estimate the probability that a player's passes lead to a goal, based on the quality of the chances those passes create.
- Expected Goal InvolvementsExpected goal involvements add expected goals and expected assists together into a player's total expected attacking contribution.
- Expected ThreatExpected threat measures how much a player's passes and carries move the ball into more dangerous areas of the pitch.
- Defensive Contribution Hit RateDefensive contribution hit rate is the share of a player's matches in which they reached the fantasy threshold of ten defensive contributions for defenders, or twelve for midfielders and forwards.
- Defensive ContributionsDefensive contributions count a player's clearances, shots blocked, interceptions and defensive duels won.
- Assists minus Expected AssistsAssists minus expected assists is a player's actual assists less their expected assists, showing whether teammates are converting the chances they create.
- Goal Involvements minus xGIGoal involvements minus expected goal involvements is the over or under performance figure for a player's whole attacking game.
- Goals minus Expected GoalsGoals minus expected goals is a player's actual goals less their expected goals, so a positive figure means they are finishing above the quality of their chances.
- Expected Goal DifferenceExpected goal difference is expected goals for minus expected goals against, the expected equivalent of a team's goal difference.
- Expected Goals AgainstExpected goals against is the total quality of the chances a team has conceded across the season.
- Expected Goals ForExpected goals for is the total quality of the chances a team has created, added up across every match of the season.
- Expected PointsExpected points estimate the points a team's performances deserved, by turning each match's expected goals into win, draw and loss probabilities.
- Expected PositionExpected position is where a team would rank if the league were sorted by expected points instead of actual points.
- Goal Difference versus ExpectedGoal difference versus expected is expected goal difference minus actual goal difference, so a positive figure means the underlying play is better than the goals suggest.
- Points versus ExpectedPoints versus expected is expected points minus actual points, so a positive figure means a team has banked fewer points than their performances deserved.
- Position versus ExpectedPosition versus expected is how many places a team's real league position sits away from its expected position.
- Pass NetworksA pass network plots each player's average on-pitch position as a node, with node size and connecting line thickness showing how much they passed and to whom.
- Shot MapsA shot map plots every shot from a match or a player on a pitch diagram, using dot position for where it was taken and dot size for its expected goals value.
- xG Race ChartAn xG race chart plots each team's running total of expected goals minute by minute across a match, so the two lines show who created more chances and when.
- Field TiltField tilt is the share of a match's attacking-third passes belonging to one team, expressed as a percentage, used to measure territorial control independent of the scoreline.
- PPDAPPDA counts how many passes the opposition completes, on average, before a defensive action stops them, so a lower number means a team pressed higher and harder.
- Fixture Difficulty ModellingFixture difficulty is built by running a Dixon-Coles match model for each opponent, ranking the result against every other fixture in the same window, then blending three weighted percentile scores into a 1-5 rating.
- How xG Models DifferEvery data provider trains its own expected goals model on its own event data, so the same shot can carry a slightly different xG value depending on which site you are reading.
See these numbers in use
Every Premier League player, team and match, measured by the chances created rather than the scoreline.