Since Christmas, it feels like Fantasy Premier League (FPL) captaincies are continually being wasted on the out-of-form Erling Haaland (£15.1m).
Across all competitions, he’s without an open play goal in eight matches, limited to just a successful Gameweek 21 penalty versus Brighton and Hove Albion. For someone constantly receiving between 6.8 million and 7.6 million armbands, it’s causing concern.
Following Manchester City’s Champions League humiliation at Bodo/Glimt, Haaland acknowledged his lull.
“I take full responsibility for not being able to score the goals I should do, so I apologise to everyone and every single Manchester City supporter that travelled today. I don’t want to speak about how I feel, I do my best whenever I am on the pitch, and I am on the pitch quite often because we play a ridiculous amount of games. I try to do my best, that is my job, and I try to get ready for the next game.” – Erling Haaland to TNT Sports
So, is there a logical reason why the 25-year-old has stopped scoring?
Is Haaland having fewer shots?
Not really. Four of this season’s league matches involved only one Haaland shot, but the last of these was back in Gameweek 15.
In fact, the early-January draw with Brighton saw Haaland achieve a season-high of eight attempts.
There have been at least two close-range shots in each of these five ‘quieter’ occasions, and he’s part of our ‘Goals Imminent’ table.
Up to Gameweek 17, the Norwegian averaged 3.765 non-penalty efforts per match, while it’s 3.600 since. A very similar rate, though non-penalty box shots are down from 3.588 to 2.800.
Are they of worse quality?
This is where a drop becomes clear. None of these five encounters is part of his nine best non-penalty expected goals (NPxG) tallies, whereas all are among his worst nine for expected goals (xG) per non-penalty shot.
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