Stats Suggest Man Utd's Anthony Martial Is the Most Lethal Player in the Premier League
Anthony Martial may have missed a penalty for Manchester United in the Champions League on Tuesday night, but the Frenchman was otherwise electrifying during the game against Benfica and left the pitch to a rapturous ovation when he was substituted with 15 minutes remaining.
The contrast between this season and last, when he endured a difficult second year at Old Trafford, couldn't be more pronounced, with the former Monaco starlet in fine form in 2017/18.
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And data, courtesy of EA SPORTS, suggests that Martial might actually be the most lethal player in the Premier League right now when considering his impressive goal/shot success rate.
The 21-year-old has found the net four times in the Premier League so far this season from only 10 shots. That gives him a scoring success rate of 40% whenever he takes aim.
No other player in the division has a rate to match it. Leading scorer Harry Kane, for example, has taken 57 shots to net his eight Premier League goals - a success rate of only 14%.
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The next most clinical player in the Premier League after Martial is Leicester forward Shinji Okazaki. Like Martial, the Japanese international has scored four times, with his 11 shots giving him a goal/shot success rate of a very respectable 36%.
His Foxes teammate Jamie Vardy and Manchester City winger Leroy Sane have each scored six goals from 19 efforts for a 31% success rate when shooting. City pair Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus are scoring at 30% for their seven and six Premier League goals respectively.
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But what is even more impressive about Martial is that he has played far fewer minutes than any of his rivals as a result of a squad rotation policy at Old Trafford that has seen him share duties with home-grown favourite Marcus Rashford.
Martial has been on the pitch for just 269 minutes in the Premier League, compared to 876 for Vardy. Okazaki has played 455 minutes, while the City trio of Sane, Sterling and Jesus have all played at least 500 minutes each.
Martial's talent has never been in doubt from the day he made his United debut in September 2015, scoring a fine solo goal against Liverpool. But what the numbers suggest is that he needs to have more confidence in his ability and shoot more often if he is take the next step in his career and find that elusive consistency which separates good players from great players.
Player | Goals | Total Shots | Goal/Shot Success |
Anthony Martial (Man Utd) | 4 | 10 | 40% |
Shinji Okazaki (Leicester) | 4 | 11 | 36% |
Jamie Vardy (Leicester) | 6 | 19 | 32% |
Leroy Sane (Man City) | 6 | 19 | 32% |
Raheem Sterling (Man City) | 7 | 23 | 30% |
Gabriel Jesus (Man City) | 6 | 20 | 30% |
Chris Wood (Burnley) | 3 | 11 | 27% |
Oumar Niasse (Everton) | 3 | 11 | 27% |
Sergio Aguero (Man City) | 7 | 27 | 26% |
Sadio Mane (Liverpool) | 3 | 12 | 25% |
Data Courtesy of EA SPORTS, the Lead Partner of the Premier League
