It is no secret that Sunderland Football Club are struggling for goals. Phil Parkinson’s side can’t seem to put most field goals past opponents during games (WhoScored.com). This inability to score has caused discontent from fans who demanded more.
Sunderland fan account, Roker Report, published an article indicating a few potential signings for the club to make in January. One of the suggestions made was Rasmus Wiedesheim-Paul from HBK in Sweden. The 20-year-old can play as a striker or left-winger and has a value of around £113,000 according to transfermarkt.co.uk. But what can Wiedesheim-Paul bring to the squad that current members can’t?
TIF Tactics – Who is Wiedesheim-Paul?
Wiedesheim-Paul has played 3042 minutes so far this season. In that time he has scored 21 goals and registered one assist. On average that is 0.57 goals and 0.03 assists per 90 minutes of play. While those numbers aren’t staggering, it trumps Will Grigg’s average of 0.26 goals per 90 minutes.
But while it’s easy to just compare the number of goals scored per minutes played, it is also important to look at how clinical both strikers are. In terms of xG (expected goals) will Grigg averages just 0.32 goals per 90 minutes. Overall Wiedesheim-Paul only has an xG of 21.02 goals to his 21 total scored. On average is xG and goals scored per 90 are both 0.57. This suggests that the striker is highly clinical, and will take any opportunity he gets to score.
When it comes to assisting his teammates, however, Wiedesheim-Paul doesn’t hit his xA (expected assists) of 4.63. This translates to around 0.12 assists per 90 minutes. The Swede only makes 1.59 passes to the final third on average per 90 minutes, with a 57.6% accuracy. He additionally makes 2.45 passes into the opponent’s box, with a 47.3% accuracy. These numbers suggest at the striker has a hard time progressing the ball forward on the pass.
Wiedesheim-Paul progresses the ball on the dribble 5.68 times per 90 minutes, with a 44.5% success rate. This indicates that the player is much more comfortable running with the ball at his feet instead of passing to teammates. However, his success rate in this area is slightly worrying.
Should Sunderland approach a player like Wiedesheim-Paul to come in during January, it will certainly put pressure on players like Grigg to step up their game. There have been no substantial reports linking the player to the club aside from the recommendation made by Roker Report. Chances are fans won’t see this exact move happen, but it does indicate that there are better options out there than the current players. However many fans won’t need statistics to tell them that.
(all data and stats from Wyscout.com, accurate at the time of writing)