STATS - Do we have the worst frontline in England? [spoiler: almost]

[beepee1984]

On 30/10/2025 at 18:07, OntarioFox said:

I've been meaning to do this for the longest while as our recognised strikers continue to embarrass us - I wanted to ask the question - do Leicester City have the most ineffective striking options in England?

Now seems like a good enough time to crunch the numbers - we're three months into the season and, with the exception of the Prem, every team has played at least 10 games.

 

A few points to make before revealing where we stand:

 

• For the sake of the stats, and to allow a fairly even playing field, I've counted league goals only for the top four leagues in England - since there's a chance for teams in Europe and the cups to pad their stats otherwise. This is purely the bread and butter stats.
• The grey area is what constitutes a striker in the modern day - a number of sides, ourselves included, have notable contributions from attack-minded wingers. But that's not the issue we've been highlighting - it's our recognised Centre Forwards. So, for this analysis, I've counted goals only from recognised Centre Forwards, or in some rare cases players listed by Transfermarkt as Second Strikers, as opposed to Attacking Midfielders.
• As you can guess, there are multiple teams tied on the same (pathetic) number of goals. Where this happened, I have ranked them firstly on games played, then on league / pyramid position. As it turned out, coincidentally these two stats gave the same results regardless of which way around I ranked them.

 

So enough rambing. And, as you could well guess, our position is an embarrassment...

 

 

 

We officially have the second worst frontline in England, beaten only by Cheltenham Town who have played two more games than us and still only managed a single goal. For reference, they sit 21st in League Two. Our single goal so far came from Jordan Ayew.
 

I crunched the numbers for all 92 teams, and as well as making for miserable reading, there were a few interesting outliers:

• Coventry, depressingly, are runaway leaders for the most lethal strike force, with 19 between them in 12 games (Thomas-Asante x9, Wright x8, Simms x2)
• Haaland remains a beast for Man City with 11 goals. That is every goal scored by a recognised striker for Man City this season.
• Only two Second Strikers made the chart - Cunha for Man Utd. and McAtee for Bolton
• Gillingham have arguably the most strength in depth in the pyramid - six of their recognised Centre Forwards have scored league goals this season
• Barrow AFC are the only club out of 92 whose leading goalscorer is a Centre Back - Lewis Shipley has 3 goals so far.

 

We're actually very lucky that we're just counting league goals by the way. Tom Taylor's goal for Cheltenham in the EFL Trophy would actually mean they've got TWO goals from Centre Forwards. None of ours scored in the cup.

 

So yeah, you're not imagining it. Our frontline really is that bad!

 

Sorry I think we have to count Tom Taylor EFL Trophy goal - Cheltenham forwards have scored 2 goals this season!

 

And what about 2025 in all competitions

 

Ayew 2

Daka 0

Carrenza 1

 

3 Strikers averaging 1 goal each in 10 months of football - Surely no team has strikers less prolific

Edited 31 October 2025 by beepee1984

[trooky]

23 hours ago, Stadt said:

The lack of service is the problem. How many sitters have we missed? Carranza at Swansea when we 3-1 up is about the only one.

Daka misses at least one sitter everytime he plays. Millwall as an example or Ayew not running onto Ramsey's cross for a tap-in during the same game. 

 

They're shit, no debate. 

[Stadt]

1 hour ago, trooky said:

Daka misses at least one sitter everytime he plays. Millwall as an example or Ayew not running onto Ramsey's cross for a tap-in during the same game. 

 

They're shit, no debate. 

He doesn’t miss one every time he plays ffs.

 

The Millwall chance was 0.04 xG using Opta’s model 

[trooky]

41 minutes ago, Stadt said:

He doesn’t miss one every time he plays ffs.

 

The Millwall chance was 0.04 xG using Opta’s model 

I've no idea how opta arrives at a 4% chance of scoring from an unmarked header in the penalty area from a pin-point cross hit a pace. 

 

He doesn't need to generate any power, only re-direct the ball either side of the keeper and it's a goal. It's an absolute sitter IMO. 

 

A player as shit as Daka might only score that chance 4 times out of 100, but any decent strikers is scoring that 80% of the time. 

[Stadt]

4 minutes ago, trooky said:

I've no idea how opta arrives at a 4% chance of scoring from an unmarked header in the penalty area from a pin-point cross hit a pace. 

 

He doesn't need to generate any power, only re-direct the ball either side of the keeper and it's a goal. It's an absolute sitter IMO. 

 

A player as shit as Daka might only score that chance 4 times out of 100, but any decent strikers is scoring that 80% of the time. 

Penalties are scored about 75-78% of the time  

[trooky]

1 hour ago, Stadt said:

Penalties are scored about 75-78% of the time  

It was from the penalty spot, so about right then😂. 

[fazzyfox]

To gauge sharpness I wonder whether they score or even look like scoring in training. To be fair they’re only up against our own error prone, gift giving, buffoon CB’s, but do they score? What kind of goals do they score? What does a Caranza goal look like? What does a goal look like? 
 

The position is up for grabs and whilst I agree they’re feeding off crumbs in the matches they need to be in that mindset that when a half chance comes they’ll bag it (not brick it!)

 

In comparison how do the younger lads look, scoring goals at competitive level then coming into training on a high unlike Daka who’s last goal was filmed on black & white cine-film with a piano soundtrack applauded by flat capped pipe smoking suited gents with bushy moustaches (only a slight exaggeration, that’s how it feels)!

 

How about a behind closed doors friendly to get their confidence up, get someone potentially weak enough, St Tiddlesworths Girl Guides Pack 3rd XI or Forest?

 

But we do need better service, a LB that gets within 20 yards of the winger he’s supporting would be a start.

[RonnieTodger]

Got laughed at for stating that George Hirst walks into our team. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

When you look at the stats around the rest of the team they're either average or good. It's the complete inability to score that's letting us down.

[honeybradger]

1 minute ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

When you look at the stats around the rest of the team they're either average or good. It's the complete inability to score that's letting us down.

Defensively we are among the worst in the league. Stolarczyk has kept the scorelines reasonable thus far this season.