Rangers fans will have been tuning into games from around the world in order to watch their players representing their national teams this week. One of those players was Scott Arfield, who represented Canada against the United States of America. His side were on the losing end of a 4-1 scoreline last week.
With Steven Gerrard’s side impressing fans greatly over the last few weeks, Arfield has been on the end of the winning scoreline more often than not. This will be a game that Arfield hopes to forget, but where did it go wrong for Arfield and Canada?
TIF Tactics – Arfield vs the United States of America
Despite losing by a considerable amount, Arfield and his teammates managed to own 63.94% of possession the game. They had nine shots at net however only three hit the target. They failed to create many goalscoring opportunities, with an xG (expected goals) of just 0.5. This is much lower then they’re normal xG of 2.49 per 90 minutes.
It would be harsh for any Canadian fans to point blame at Arfield after the game. The player completed two crosses during the game with a 100% accuracy. This is more than his average of 1.04 crosses per 90 minutes. He also won both of his two defensive duels and made one clearance during the game. He also made an impressive six interceptions during the game, much higher than his average of 2.58 per 90 minutes.
He made 62 passes during the match, 54 of which were successful, giving him an 87% pass accuracy. On average this season the Canadian has made 45.05 passes per 90 minutes with an 83.9% accuracy. When we look at his forward passing, we see where the player struggled though.
Arfield averages 6.48 passes into the final third per 90 minutes this season, with an 81.8% accuracy. Against the United States, Arfield made six passes into the final third, only 67% of which were accurate. On the flip side, Arfield made 22 back passes with a 100% pass accuracy. He only averages 9.38 backward passes per 90 minutes over the course of the entire 2019/2020 season.
The statistics of Canada’s possession indicate that perhaps it was America’s strong defence that prevented Arfield from making forward passes. At the end of the day, Canada will regret not being able to make use of their tremendous amount of time on the ball. Arfield will be excited to come back to Ibrox and be part of a team who are clinical going forward.
(all data and stats from Wyscout.com, accurate at the time of writing)