This Week in Stats: Mohamed Salah vs. Harry Kane

Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane fought until the final day to try to secure the 2017-18 Premier League golden boot. Salah won it, but did he deserve to?

Harry Kane is the best goalscorer the Premier League has seen for quite some time. He won the Golden Boot in both of the last two seasons, and set a new personal best with 30 league goals in 2017-18. But it wasn’t enough this time, as Liverpool signed a player who was out of this world: Mohamed Salah.

The Egyptian, who joined the Reds from Roma last summer, tore up the Anfield record books. He became Liverpool’s top scoring player in their debut season, and their second top scorer in any season ever.

While the record shows Salah won the Golden Boot this season, did he actually deserve to? Well yes, obviously, as he scored the most goals. We like to dig a little deeper at This Week in Stats though, so here’s a rundown of how they compare when their Premier League goals are broken down.

Penalties

Did Salah boost his tally with any spot kicks? Why yes he did, as he scored a penalty at Huddersfield in Liverpool’s 3-0 win there in January.

That’s nothing on Harry Kane though, who took more league penalties at Anfield than Liverpool did all season. However, one of them was saved by an excellent up-and-coming goalkeeper called Loris Karius. Oh.

Anyway, Kane slotted one home that day, and one at Burnley to give himself two penalties for the season. He wins the penalty count, while Salah wins the non-penalty one.

Body parts

Mohamed Salah set a new record for left footed goals in the Premier League era, with 25. Rumor has it left footed goals were scored before 1992, but there were no Millennial nerds around to count them.

Still, left footers accounted for 78 percent of Salah’s total, so he was somewhat limited in terms of sharing the goals around. Not like Kane, who bagged 10 with his left, 13 with his right, and 6 headers.

He also scored one with ‘other’, but I can’t imagine would that would’ve been. Breathing on the ball? Looking at it as it flies past? Whatever, Kane had the better variety in this category.

Distance from goal

There’s nothing to separate the players here, as both scored three goals from outside the area. But if it were to be decided on quality of opponent and sheer artistic merit, then I’d award it to Salah. He scored from outside the box at Arsenal, and famously sent the ball back over Ederson’s head and into an unguarded Anfield net too.

Kane had the edge in predatory terms though, as he netted eight times from within the six yard box. Salah only scored four from such close range, the massive loser.

Venue

Fifty-seven percent of Premier League goals this season were scored by the home side. Considering the fuss that is made regarding home advantage, you’d think it would be even higher. Anyway, in light of this fact, it’s only right to give credit to the player who scored the most goals on the road.

And that man is Harold Kane. Spurs fans will tell you he scored all of his goals away from home this season, as Wembley isn’t White Hart Lane. But leaving semantics aside, Kane still scored 15 times at opposition grounds, while Salah netted 13 goals away from Anfield.

Timing

While the Golden Boot is awarded for the most goals scored, we’d be naive if we thought all goals were equal. The winner in a tight match is worth far more than the fifth goal in a thrashing.

Who scored the most opening goals of games? Kane, by 11 to nine. How about the last goal of a match? Kane again, as he netted 13 compared to Salah’s eight.

Liverpool’s number 11 did score more first half goals (with 14 to Kane’s 11) but it was the England international who won the second-half battle, by a single strike. In fact, Sergio Aguero (with 21 Premier League goals this season) and Jamie Vardy (with 20) are the only other two players who scored more goals in total than Kane managed in second halves alone.

The Tottenham talisman’s 19 second half goals means he scored more times after the break than Swansea, Brighton, Huddersfield and Stoke did.

Next: Ranking every World Cup, from worst to best

Spread of goals

Hat-tricks are a nice personal achievement, and Kane got two in 2017-18 while Salah got one, but it’s perhaps more use to a team if a player scores in a wider range of games.

This is one category where the Egyptian forward has the edge. He scored in 24 matches, compared to Kane’s 19, and did so more times than several teams managed to.

Huddersfield only scored in 17 league matches this season, while Swansea netted in 20. Brighton found the net in 21 games, then four teams matched Salah’s total of 24. In percentage terms, as Salah missed two matches, half of the division scored in a lower proportion of their matches than he did. It’s a very impressive feat by the player of the season

Expected goals

Our final category looks at how the duo fared against their expected goal totals. The website understat has figures for all players in the Premier League, and it’s their figures that are used here.

In terms of over-performing, it’s Salah who was the better finisher. The Liverpool man scored 6.86 goals more than expected, whereas Kane was “only” 3.14 goals better than expectation. It was the Tottenham man who had the higher xG tally, so it was Salah’s ability to score more eye catching goals from unlikely positions which powered him to the Golden Boot.

So what have we learned?

Harry Kane came out on top in most categories. But it all comes down to the total goals scored, so Salah was the winner. Any words for Kane at this tough time, Lucas Leiva?

https://twitter.com/empireofthekop/status/887575345238614017