Chance conversion, fouls and touches – facts and figures for the season so far
Friday, 31. December 2021, 10:00 Uhr
While the players are recharging their batteries for the second half of the campaign, we decided to take a look back at the season so far. Which player has drawn the most fouls, who has had the most touches and how well have the Boys in Brown taken their chances?
Chance conversion rate
Accuracy in front of goal is the key to success, as the Boys in Brown have demonstrated so impressively thus far, carrying on where they left off in the second half of last season. In total, they have registered 259 attempts on goal (sixth-best in the league), of which 37 ended up in the net. The Schultz XI have thus required just 6.92 attempts to score. Only Darmstadt 98 (252 attempts/41 goals/6.15 attempts per goal) have been more effective in front of goal.
Accomplished on the counter
In the second half of last season the Boys in Brown proved highly efficient in transition on winning possession, a trend that has continued this term. The Schultz XI have scored nine times on the counterattack – the league's highest return by some distance ahead of FC Schalke 04 and FC Heidenheim, who have found the net five times on the break.
The ball magnet
Leart Paqarada has been the most frequent outball for the Boys in Brown in the 18 games contested thus far. The left-back amassed 93 touches against Regensburg, 98 against Heidenheim, 101 against Schalke 04, 103 against Aue, 121 against Bremen and 122 against Sandhausen and Kiel. A total of 1,524 touches leave Paqarada second in the league ranking, with only HSV's Sebastian Schonlau (1,556) registering more from 19 minutes less playing time. In the internal standings, Philipp Ziereis occupies second place with 1,042 touches followed by Jakov Medić (871), Daniel-Kofi Kyereh (855) and Marcel Hartel (838).
Punishment
The Boys in Brown have committed the fewest fouls so far this season (just 148) and have also collected the lowest number of bookings (25). They have regularly been on the receiving end, however. The Schultz XI have suffered the second-highest number of fouls behind Jahn Regensburg (232 fouls compared with 250), with Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, in particular, coming in for some clatter. Extremely assured on the ball and an excellent dribbler, the versatile forward often left opposition players resorting to unfair means to stop him, drawing a hefty 43 fouls in 18 matches. Regensburg's Benedikt Gimber (42) follows just behind in this category.
Hot out of the traps
The Boys in Brown were not exactly early starters in the four seasons to 2019/20, scoring just four times in the opening quarter of an hour in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 campaigns, three times in 2018/19 and five in 2019/20. Last season there was an improvement, with ten goals coming in the first 15 minutes, and the upward trend has continued this season. The Schultz XI's total of eight goals is matched only by HSV, with Jahn Regensburg and Darmstadt 98 each registering six times in the opening quarter of an hour.
Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters