George Oakley revealed as Scottish Premiership's most efficient striker

| 20 November 2019

George Oakley revealed as Scottish Premiership's most efficient striker

The Hamilton forward has scored four goals from six shots.

The Ladbrokes Premiership season is roughly a third of the way through and some interesting trends have emerged – including Hamilton and striker George Oakley in particular being been the most efficient attacking force.

The stats from the first 13 rounds of fixtures of the league campaign show Oakley has scored four goals despite hitting only six shots.

Accies in general only need 5.4 shots at goal to find the net, a more efficient rate than Celtic (5.8) and the rest of the top flight.

St Mirren are at the opposite end of the spectrum, needing almost 18 shots for every goal scored, about seven more than Kilmarnock behind them.

However, the Buddies are one of the most resilient teams in the league, conceding a goal every 9.1 shots faced, just behind Rangers (9.4) in that table. Their home record is particularly impressive – they have faced 52 shots at the Simple Digital Arena and only conceded once.

Unfortunately for Jim Goodwin's bottom side, they have lost all seven away games and let in 15 goals on the road.

Celtic hit seven goals past St Johnstone on the opening day — Celtic hit seven goals past **St Johnstone** on the opening day (Ian Rutherford/PA)

St Johnstone have struggled to keep the ball out of their net – despite allowing fewer shots than Kilmarnock, they are conceding at over twice the rate.

Out of the players who have scored at least three goals this season, Oakley's conversion rate of 1.5 shots per goal beats that of Ross County's Joe Chalmers (2.3) and Rangers forward Jermain Defoe, who has scored 10 goals from 27 shots.

Defoe has the best strike rate in the division with a goal every 51 minutes he is on the park. His fellow Ibrox frontman Alfredo Morelos (76) is ahead of Celtic forward Odsonne Edouard (97).

George Oakley makes the most of his shots (PA)

Ross County's Brian Graham is sixth on the list with a goal every 143 minutes – he has netted three times but has only started two games.

Hamilton have taken the least shots per match (5.8) – a full two fewer than the next most shot-shy team, Ross County.

Rangers have shaded Celtic as the most threatening team with 18.3 shots per game, 0.8 more than their title rivals.

Rangers hit the target more often than any other team (PA)

Steven Gerrard's side have also managed most shots on target (eight), one ahead of Celtic, with Hamilton again bottom on little more than two per game.

Celtic face the fewest shots (5.2) and shots on target (1.7) per game, while the Ross County goalkeeper is the busiest goalkeeper, facing about six shots on target each match. Hamilton face more than 14 shots in an average game but less than five are on target.

Rangers' goalkeepers have saved more shots (74.1 per cent) than any other team, with Kilmarnock just behind them and Celtic down in eighth with 65 per cent. St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark has let in just over half of the shots he has had to deal with.

**Hearts** commit more fouls than any other team (PA)

Away from shooting, Hearts are the dirtiest side in the division, having racked up almost 14 fouls per match. St Johnstone suffer more fouls per game (13) than any other team.

Other stats of note show that Celtic spend more than 60 per cent of their matches in a winning position while St Johnstone have been losing for most of their season.

Hamilton are the youngest team in the league with their average age under 25 and St Mirren are the oldest at over 28.

Meanwhile, Livingston fans are better off going to away games to see their team score – only a quarter of their goals have come at the Tony Macaroni Arena.