In this data analysis piece, we will be looking out for the best wingers currently playing in the Eliteserien using statistics. The wingers’ evolution in football has been well documented, where they were once only key to creating chances but not scoring goals. The modern-day wingers have changed the trend by getting more involved than their strikers in front of the goal.
In our analysis, we will be considering both the attacking as well as defensive attributes. We will be looking at players who registered at least 800 minutes of football in the 2021/22 league season.
We will shortlist the best options in this data analysis. In this piece, we look into the players who are amongst the best-performing wingers in the league in the 2022 campaign. Let’s dive deep into the analysis.
Goalscoring
Wingers over the past 20 years have had their roles re-defined. Where once they were used for playing crosses into the box for strikers, the last 20 years have seen wingers being in more inverted positions and becoming more of a goal threat to the team than their strikers. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo for Manchester United and Real Madrid, Lionel Messi for Barcelona or even Mohamed Salah for Liverpool are some of the best goal-scoring wingers of the current generation.
Amahl Pellegrino – The 32-year-old winger from Bodo/Glimt recorded 0.84 xG per game this season and also scored 1.26 goals from it, both of them being the league’s highest for a winger. He also averaged 3.61 shots per 90 for his club which shows that he is a high-volume shooter.
Zlatko Tripić – The 29-year-old winger from Viking has recorded 0.41 xG per game this season and scored 0.43 goals on average. He also averaged 2.34 shots per 90 for his club.
Milan Jevtović – The 29-year-old winger from Odds has averaged 0.33 xG per game this season and scored 0.38 goals on average. He also averaged 2.49 shots per 90 for his club.
Osame Sahraoui – The 21-year-old winger from Valerenga has recorded 0.32 xG per game this season and scored 0.27 goals on average. He also averaged 2.3 shots per 90 for his club.
Aron Dønnum – The 24-year-old winger from Valerenga has averaged 0.25 xG per game this season and scored 0.2 goals on average. He also averaged 2.1 shots per 90 for his club.
Chance creation
The best wingers are also among the top playmakers and they need to make passes into the opposition penalty area and also be able to create good chances for their teammates to score.
Zlatko Tripić – The Viking winger has averaged 1.91 key passes per game, the highest among the wingers in the leagues, and averaged an xA of 0.52 per game, the highest among the wingers in the leagues. He has also averaged 3.83 shot-assists per game in the league this season, which is the highest amongst wingers.
Joel Mugisha – The 19-year-old winger from Bodo/Glimt has recorded 0.99 key passes per game and averaged an xA of 0.3 per game. He registered 1.32 shot-assists per game in the league which is a decent value for a winger.
Niklas Sandberg – The 27-year-old winger from Viking has recorded 0.9 key passes per game and averaged an xA of 0.31 per game. He registered 2.16 shot-assists per game in the league which is a very good value for a winger.
Amahl Pellegrino – The 32-year-old winger has averaged 0.92 key passes per game and averaged an xA of 0.22 per game. He registered 1.63 shot-assists per game in the league.
Osame Sahraoui – The 21-year-old winger from Valerenga has averaged 0.71 key passes per game and averaged an xA of 0.21 per game. He registered 1.2 shot-assists per game in the league.
Activity in the box
In this section of the analysis, we’ll assess how active the players in the box are. We have shots per 90 on the y-axis and touches in the box per 90 on the x-axis. The colour shows the xG per shot, which allows us to differentiate those players who attempt speculative shots (red) from those who shoot from dangerous positions (green).
Amahl Pellegrino – The 32-year-old winger averaged 3.61 shots per game while averaging 5.17 touches in the box. His shots also had an average xG of 0.23 which is a very good number for the winger and shows that he takes shots from good zones inside the penalty box.
Milan Jevtović – The 29-year-old winger has recorded 2.49 shots per game while averaging 4.86 touches in the box per game. His shots also had an average xG of 0.13 which is a very good number for a winger and shows that he does get into solid positions to take shots at times.
Osame Sahraoui – The 21-year-old winger from Valerenga has averaged 2.3 shots per game while averaging 5.67 touches in the box per game. His shots also had an average xG of 0.13 which is a very good number for a winger and shows that he does get into good positions to take shots at times.
Joel Mugisha – The Bodo/Glimt winger recorded 1.89 shots per game while averaging 5.52 touches in the box per game. His shots also had an average xG of 0.11 which shows that he takes a lot of shots outside the box per game.
Aron Dønnum – The 24-year-old winger averaged 2.1 shots per game while averaging 4.8 touches in the box per game. His shots also had an average xG of 0.12 which is slightly below average and shows that he takes a lot of shots outside the box per game.
Dribbling
In this data analysis section, we will look at the players’ ability to get past rivals and create things by themselves. On the x-axis, we have completed dribbles per 90 and on the y-axis, progressive runs per 90 (a continuous ball control by one player attempting to draw the team significantly closer to the opponent’s goal). Dribbling is an important attribute to a winger and his ability to get past an opponent can open defences in a much easier fashion.
Joel Mugisha – The Bodo/Glimt winger recorded 5.4 successful dribbles per game along with 4.94 progressive runs per game in the league, which is the league’s highest by a winger. He also made 15.32 offensive duels per game, which is so far amongst the league’s highest.
Osame Sahraoui – The 21-year-old winger from Valerenga has averaged 4.95 successful dribbles per game along with 3.81 progressive runs per game in the league. He also made a league-high 20.63 offensive duels per 90.
Aron Dønnum – The 24-year-old winger recorded a league-high 5.8 successful dribbles per game along with 3.4 progressive runs per game in the league. He also made 16.9 offensive duels per 90.
Zlatko Tripić – The Viking winger has averaged 4.14 successful dribbles per game along with 2.98 progressive runs per game in the league. He also has made 9.99 offensive duels per game in the league this season.
Mohamed Ofkir – The 26-year-old from Sandefjord has recorded 2.8 successful dribbles per game along with 2.99 progressive runs per game in the league. He also has made 11.39 offensive duels per game in the league this season.
Defensive contributions
Despite the modern game developing to accommodate a lot of forwards being given the freedom and the fundamentals to do well in possession, the same modern philosophy expects them to track back and defend for the team as a collective process.
Joel Mugisha – The Bodo/Glimt winger recorded 7.74 defensive duels per game and 3.77 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season. He also made 7.74 successful defensive actions per game in the league last season.
Niklas Sandberg – The 27-year-old from Viking recorded 5.68 defensive duels per game and 3.09 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season. He also made 6.4 successful defensive actions per game in the league last season.
Milan Jevtović – The 29-year-old winger has averaged 5.19 defensive duels per game and 2.55 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season. He also made 6.22 successful defensive actions per game in the league last season.
Gjermund Åsen – The 29-year-old winger has averaged 3.76 defensive duels per game and a league-high, for a winger, 4 PAdj interceptions per game in the league this season. He also made 5.39 successful defensive actions per game in the league last season.
Players to watch out for
Based on the data and the statistics, we have shortlisted a few options to look out for in the forthcoming season where we expect these wingers to make bigger strides.
Joel Mugisha
The Bodo/Glimt teenager is one of the most exciting teenagers to have come out of the league this season. He has been given a good amount of minutes by his manager and has shown glimpses of his potential in those appearances. He seems to be excelling in creating chances for his teammates and is also very good in terms of dribbling as well where he is solid in beating his man in 1v1 situations.
He also contributes well defensively for his side. One area that he would look to improve would be to be very good with his output in front of the goal as we can see in the above image where he has taken fewer shots and also most of his shots are from the right flank with the shots being of less xG.
Osame Sahraoui
The Valerenga winger is one of the most completer wingers in the league who seems to be excelling in almost all the attacking metrics. He has very good goal output, creates very good chances for his teammates, is pretty good at beating his man in 1v1 situations and also is pretty involved in the box where he actively takes shots and looks to convert them.
He doesn’t really have any potential weakness and also his shot maps show that he takes shots from good positions which are pretty sustainable.
Aron Dønnum
Another exciting young player who is pretty good in front of the goal, and is also pretty active inside the box taking good shots. He also seems to be very good at dribbling past his opponent as he possesses a great ability to beat his man in 1v1 situations. He could probably use his ability to beat his player and create a lot more chances for his teammate. We can see his shot map in the image above and we can see that he is pretty good at taking shots from the centre of the box which is wonderful for a player that is looking to score a lot of goals.
Conclusion
The Eliteserien possesses some fine wingers with most of them being young and with high potential. In this article, we have covered both the attacking as well as defensive traits to discuss and list a few of the best-performing players. We could see that the players we saw and discussed could follow the same path and succeed at the top level and might soon enter the top-five leagues in Europe.
