Secretively, our good friend Craig Anderson (@SPLStats) has been compiling information on every goal scored in the Scottish Premiership this season. Over the coming weeks and months, leading up to the end of the campaign, we shall be publishing some of the statistics found in his research.
We begin by ranking the top 10 scorers in the league in order of average distance for every goal scored. It wasn’t originally going to be limited to these select few, but we felt that a fair sample size had to be anything at seven goals or above.
10. Niall McGinn (Aberdeen) – 13/13.5 yards (from 9/6 goals)
9. Henri Anier (Motherwell) – 11.86 yards (from 7 goals)
8. Kris Boyd (Kilmarnock) – 11.07 yards (from 15 goals)
7. Kris Commons (Celtic) – 10.71/10.31 yards (from 17/13 goals)
6. Stevie May (St Johnstone) – 10.5/10 yards (from 16/12 goals)
5. Billy Mckay (Inverness CT) – 9.93 yards (from 15 goals)
4. John Sutton (Motherwell) – 9.91 yards (from 11 goals)
3. Anthony Stokes (Celtic) – 9.64 yards (from 7 goals)
2. Steven Thompson (St Mirren) – 7.3 yards (from 10 goals)
1. Kris Doolan (Partick Thistle) – 5.28 yards (from 7 goals)
The reason why three players have two different averages is because we took into account those who have scored penalties, since every distance would be fixed 12 yards. The presumption was that it would produce an unfair reflection of the type of goalscorer they are. We were going to produce two different tables to reflect this, but it ended up not making any difference to the order.
For those three players the average on the right is with penalties not included. You’ll notice that Niall McGinn has a higher figure if you do not include his penalties, meaning he scores the majority of his goals from more than 12 yards.
If you enjoyed this article then be sure to check out our “True Assist” table where we rank the most creative players in the Scottish Premiership based on chance creation.
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