ISIDOR: STAT BREAKDOWN

Having taken a dive into Nordi Mukiele’s stats the other day, I also wanted to look at a player who was one of the few that has managed to keep regular game time after their part in helping the Lads gain promotion back to the Premier League last campaign. That man is our top goalscorer, Wilson Isidor.

Out of our nine goals, only four of them have been scored by ‘attacking’ players - with Eliezer Mayenda’s goal on the opening day and Enzo Le Fee’s penalty against Brentford aside from Isidor’s three - and just three have been from open play.

I always felt that Wilson would suit the Premier League, with his pace in behind those high lines, with the only real doubt being his hold-up play and ability in the air. Both of which he has looked much better at in recent weeks.

What do the stats say about Isidor’s start, though, and how does he compare to others?

Well starting with the basic stats, he currently sits as the join- fifth top scorer in the league, just the eight goals behind the machine of a striker that is Erling Haaland. Although he has only gotten three goals, he is overachieving on his XG which currently sits at 1.3. That puts him 8th in the league when it comes to over-performing on this particular stat, with just Brentford’s Igor Thiago and of course Haaland above him that are actually out-and-out strikers. In comparison, Arsenal’s star striker Viktor Gyokores is currently also on three league goals and is under-performing on XG by 0.4.

Despite Sunderland having to absorb a lot of pressure in games meaning Isidor is sometimes having to feed off scraps, he is still managing 3.17 shots per match with 0.99 of those being on target, on average. That is more shots a game than Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike and once again Gyokores, proving he is still getting himself into those areas to get chances.

His average shot distance sits at 14.9 yards from goal, whereas a player like Haaland (who is of course surrounded by World Class talent) averages around 11.2 yards.

One of the criticisms last year for Isidor was that he did have a habit of wandering offside and in fairness to him he has been better. He has been caught offside just three times this season, placing him 19th in the league with Bournemouth striker Evanilson being caught offside seven times in seven games.

Incredibly in his eight appearances this campaign, he has only touched the ball 85 times, with 44 of those being in the attacking third. Ollie Watkins for example, who has had a rather poor start to the season compared to his usual standards, has had 170 total touches with more in the attacking third than Wilson has had all season with 91. Despite that Watkins has only managed one goal. Despite the lack of touches, the Frenchman is making them count.

He has not scored in our last three – at least officially anyway, after what was a great finish past Sam Johnstone at his near post on Saturday… if only he just held his run slightly. Despite that, there should be no doubt that Isidor is more than capable at this level. The stats show that with the way we are playing he has to be very patient for his chances. Remembering Sunderland paid a reported £4 million for Isidor, while Championship clubs are throwing around over double that for players who could not tie his boots, you have to yet again credit Speakman and co for getting a striker of his quality. Not only did he do the job in the Championship, he’s adapted to life in the Premier League seamlessly.

*Stats from FBRef.