Ever wondered how the Hyundai A-League stacks up against some of the other competitions around the world?
The stats team at Opta have done the job for you, this week looking at the comparison between the Hyundai A-League and England’s second tier, the Championship.
And, more pointedly, how current Hyundai A-League leaders Sydney FC match up against the Championship’s current top side, Newcastle United.
Here are some of the key stats…
- Sydney FC’s passing accuracy (74.32%) is the worst of any team in the Hyundai A-League. But that percentage would put them in the top half of Championship passing stats (11th out of 24 teams) and only just behind the Magpies (78.56%).
- Newcastle’s passing accuracy would only rank them third in the Hyundai A-League, behind Melbourne City (81.9%) and Central Coast Mariners (80%). Only Fulham (83.2%) and Reading (82.2%) have a better passing accuracy than those two Hyundai A-League sides.
- Sydney FC’s Milos Ninkovic is the assists king between Sydney FC and Newcastle, with 8 from his 15 appearances at 0.53 assists per match. The most assists for any Newcastle United player is 6 – for both Jonjo Shelvey and Matt Ritchie – at 0.3 per game.
- Barnsley’s Conor Hourihane has the most assists (11) of any player between the two leagues, but that has come in 24 games. Melbourne Victory star Marco Rojas has the best average for assists per game (0.63), providing seven goals for team-mates from just 11 matches.
- The Sky Blues have kept nine clean sheets this season which is four more than any other side in the Hyundai A-League. Newcastle has kept 10 clean sheets from their 26 league games.
- Further to that, Sydney concede just 0.47 goals per match, which is better than the Championship’s best defensive outfit Brighton, who concede 0.68 goals per match (17 goals in 25 games).
- When it comes to shots at goal, Newcastle slightly edge Sydney FC, averaging 14.5 shots per game to the Sky Blues 13.9. But the Hyundai A-League club is more accurate, getting 5.7 on target to the Toon’s 5.2.
- Across both the A-League and the Championship, only Melbourne Victory (20.4%) have a better shot conversion rate than Sydney FC (16.3%). Newcastle United lead the Championship in that regard with a shot conversion rate of 13.2%.
- The Sky Blues have conceded 60 more fouls than they have won in the 2016/17 Season, a Hyundai A-League high. In contrast, Newcastle have conceded just 22-more fouls than they have won, which has them 13th in the Championship for that statistic.
- Newcastle’s Dwight Gayle is his side’s and the Championship’s highest scorer with 20 goals from 22 games at an average of 0.9 goals per game. Sydney FC’s leading scorer – skipper Alex Brosque – is fourth on the Hyundai A-League’s scoring charts, with 0.6 goals per match.
