I was perusing which teams progressed the ball well early in possessions in the opening weekend while enjoying a nice omelet, as one does in the Good Life. As I scrolled down I stumbled upon a stat that almost made me spit out my eggs, bacon and maasdamer. The league leaders in efficiency early in possession were naturally Chelsea in their utter destruction of Palace. in second place was…Norwich against Liverpool? Norwich gained 27 yards per ball loss in the first 10 seconds of their possessions against Liverpool…last year Liverpool led the league allowing only 14.5 yards per ball loss and only one team cracked 20 against the Reds ferocious press (Chelsea). A few other, broader metrics in case you think I’ve sliced too thinly here:
-Last year just 3 teams had a higher completion % against Liverpool than Norwich’s 84%: Man City x2 and Chelsea.
-Last year just 2 teams took more shots than Norwich’s 15 against Liverpool: Aston Villa in *that* game and Manchester United in May.
Kind of astounding when you chart it out…I double-checked to make sure I didn’t have some glitch or bug in the numbers but I am calculating everything exactly the same.
So what exactly happened here and what can it tell us?
It was a team effort. Both fullbacks contributed a lot to the buildup, Giannoulis finding on the left Rupp 16 times and Aarons being an outlet for Lees-Melou, Gilmour and Cantwell down the right while also spreading several line-breaking passes forward.
The line-breaking receiver was often Rashica, who along with Lees-Melou and Gilmour gave Norwich options at each level of the pitch who excelled at getting open.
Both Gilmour and Rashica ranked in the top 20 in the league for early possession receiving yards progressed and this wasn’t bully ball through vaguely beneficial aerial “wins” in traffic like Che Adams, Chris Wood or Ivan Toney, it was ball-to-feet crunchy goodness.
Rupp and Lees-Melou were excellent in linking play from the withdrawn Gibson and Gilmour toward the more advanced Cantwell and Rashica.
maybe my favorite clip...huge field position flip off turnover
The final link that was missing was a forward ready to receive the ball in the box and shot-hunt…Teemu Pukki did not have a good game and after his previous Premier League season produced .33 xg/90, there is reason to worry. The man signed to compete with Pukki is Josh Sargent, a hard-working American who maybe more importantly has a career 0.24 xg/90. The additions of Rashica and Lees-Melou look inspired and it seems an upgrade in possession to go from Skipp/McLean to Lees-Melou/Gilmour. It’s very early days but Norwich look like they have a quite solid setup to move the ball in the Premier League and will be one of the more exciting teams to follow in the early going.
As a Norwich fan, I thought we moved the ball well and I am glad this analysis backs up my feeling. Liverpool, Man City, Leicester and then Arsenal is a grim start. We just have to keep the faith.