Zig Zag look who's missed the onion bag

Pedro Gonçalves should be grateful that Gyökeres wasn't able to play Thursday night allowing him to score twice from the penalty spot to take his tally in league and European games to five goals. Going into the game he'd taken 40 shots giving him a goals to shot ratio of 1 in every 13.33 which for a player who has previously been the top scorer in Portugal is frankly currently way off expectations. I mean he's meeting his XG in the league of 3 goals but I'm sorry if you've taken the majority of shots this season for the club then you need to back it up with the actual goods because 3 goals from 40 shots is frankly not a good enough return for me. In turn your XG metric for that level of attempts should be higher and reflects the lack of any quality with his finishing so far this season. Post Raków that brace does make it appear more respectable at 1 goal for every 8.4 shots, however really and truthfully though it's just masking over the gaps in his game this season and he hardly set the world alight last season.

Marcus Edwards has by comparison scored 2 of his 21 efforts giving him a higher ratio of 1 to 10.5 but the difference is I'd pay to watch Edwards play when he's in full flow with the ball stuck to his foot leaving defenders on their backsides. Bragança and Hjulmand are slightly better with 1 in 10, Nuno Santos and Geny 1 in 12 and Morita of the midfielders has the best ratio at 1 in 7. Trincão who I famously wrote that the UB40 song 1 in 10 was written about his goals to shot ratio has in fact failed to find the net in 16 attempts. Sadly for him even central defender Sebastian Coates record of 1 in 12 betters his current efforts. To be fair to Trincão he's another player when he's on form that's at least exciting to watch with his link up play. Far more impressive are Gyökeres with 8 goals in league and European competition giving him a ratio of a goal every 4.25 shots and Paulinho's 6 goals have come from 28 shots making his ratio 1 in 4.66 going into the Dérbi de Lisboa.

Going back to Gonçalves what I find equally as troubling taking out his 2 goals / 2 shots on target on Thursday night is that not even a 3rd of those total shots have been registered on target (32.55%) with the exact totals being 13 from 40 attempts and during that period he's managed just 1 assist. So he's basically being played to show his petulance and pretend we've still got Bruno Fernandes on the pitch. Gyökeres has a 41.41% accuracy rate and has contributed not only the 8 goals but in addition 4 assists. The latter figure is joint level with the most in the Liga Portugal going into the weekends games. Paulinho's rate is an incredibly impressive 60.71% with 17 shots on target from 28 efforts. Edwards 52.38% is based on 11 shots on target in 21 and Gonçalves is only really saved by Trincão whose got an accuracy percentage of just 18.75 but he's not been a first-choice starter for Amorim and didn't even feature in four of the fourteen games analysed. Gonçalves only game he failed to attempt a shot in was the home win against Moreirense. Some games he's racking up huge numbers for no reward. Vizela 7 attempts, 2 on target; Rio Ave 6 attempts, 1 on target; Farense 5 attempts, 2 on target. At least against Boavista it was 5 attempts, 2 on target with 1 goal scored.

I'm not about to advocate that we should try play like Manchester City and walk the ball in the net and only shoot from three of four yards out but why isn't Amorim clamping down on his players shooting from anywhere and getting them to recycle possession into better areas before attempting a shot? The running joke in my match reports is about players advertising their skills for a career as a kicker in the NFL. Bragança is particularly guilty of leaning back as he strikes the ball. I'd like to see some analysis of where each player's shots off target end up. In my mind Edwards especially tends to keep the ball low when shooting whereas I'm guessing Gonçalves' majority are coming from a distance in excess of 16 yards out and from the left edge of the area and going high and wide. I'd be surprised if he said he doesn't model his game on Bruno Fernandes because they seem very much cut from the same cloth. When it works you've no complaints but when it's not working the petulance comes to the fore, the hand waving, the complaining to the referee. It's anyone else's fault but his own. Try showing a level of culpability and humility instead.

People will rightly point out that we go into this game top and unbeaten in the league and have only lost once in all competitions but in that run we've gotten away with it on a few occasions finding late winners in games. They've not always been convincing wins and with the best will in the world we're not going to keep getting away with it throughout the campaign. Injuries and suspensions are never more than a tackle away and despite a strong first XI we're still lacking in certain areas in respects of back up options. Thankfully some players do seem to be playing themselves into a decent run of form. Edwards performances have picked up in recent weeks and Trincão looks to be playing with more confidence to boot. Gonçalves to give him his due has looked better the last month but as I say if he's going to have the bulk of the shots then his end product needs to be better and the minimum needs to be shots on target and if he's not in the best position he needs to put his foot on the ball and look to bring others into play in the final third.

In the league as a whole Sporting have scored 22 goals from 170 attempts with 64 of those coming on target equalling 37.6% which is the most of any side equal with Braga. Braga have however attempted the most efforts with 182 and Benfica one behind with 181. Interestingly for those who point to big club bias when it comes to refereeing ahead of today's Dérbi, Benfica have the best disciplinary record in the entire league having picked up 22 bookings and 1 sending off. I have to say in all competitions this season there's maybe three incidents that I would question the decision given against Sporting; The free kick awarded against Nuno Santos which lead to the second goal away to Farense. The Gyökeres sending off against Raków and the penalty awarded against Fresneda for Olivais. I'm pretty sure I'm correct in saying that in this final example VAR wasn't in action but even with the review of decisions this season I've no real complaints even when those decisions for us have been overturned. I forget the game but the penalty awarded for an alleged foul on Reis was rightly overturned and he was shown a yellow card for simulation. If you don't want to lose by unfair means you don't want to see us win in the same manner. Was it at home to Estrela? Maybe. Already all the games are starting to roll into one at this stage in the season.

I'm not overly enamoured with tonight's choice of referee Artur Dias. Last season he over saw the 2-1 home loss to Porto showing 5 yellows, the Desmond away to Benfica showing 7 yellows, the 2-1 win away to Santa Clara with again 7 yellows and then the ultimate 'the game is all about me not the players' performance in a 2-1 win away to Famalicão when he brandished 11 yellows.

Let's hope tonight Pedro Gonçalves makes me eat my words with a man of the match performance. I'm always happiest to be proven wrong.