Everton shooting less, but scoring more this season

This is Roberto Martinez's third season in charge at Everton, and we have seen differing performances on the pitch to match the evolution of his philosophies.

His first season, 2013-14, was marked by possessing the ball to an extent Blues had not seen in the Premier League era. Everton were 5th in possession percentage that season at 55.6%, and passing accuracy was 6th at 83.2%. That same season saw the Toffees mount a challenge for the Champions League spots before finally making it to the Europa League.

Everton also averaged 14.7 shots per game (6th), with 34.8% of those on goal (4th), and a conversion rate of 31.3% (shots on goal that turned into goals) where they were 8th in the Premier League in that stat.

Last year, 2014-15, saw a fall-off both in numbers and performances on the pitch as well. Possession was down to 53.6% as the team struggled to assert themselves, and accuracy dropped as well to 82.5%. The Blues small squad was stretched with European commitments and ended the season at a poor 11th place.

Shooting was down to 11th as well, at 12.7 shots per game, and though shots on goal percentage was pretty consistent at 34.3% (5th), the conversion of those into goals was lower at 28.9%, only thirteenth in the League.

Everton are looking much better this season though, and in some respects it's almost in spite of their statistics in some of the key metrics we've mentioned above.

The Toffees are spending much less time on the ball, at only 50.9% possession rates. Accuracy is lower too, at 82.0% passing success rate. Shots per game is also down, at 12.1, ranked at 12th in the Premier League. However, the big differences are in shots on goal accuracy, which is at 35.9% (6th), and goal conversion rate, which is 38.5%, good enough for 3rd in the table.

Data from WhoScored.com

Data from WhoScored.com

Here is a table comparing all the data over the three seasons -

There are multiple factors that could be influencing the higher goal conversion rate - poor goalkeeping and 'lady luck' being the key of those factors. What is clear though is that Everton need to be shooting more if they want to have any chance of climbing higher than the 9th position they currently find themselves in, especially with the more-forgiving schedule that is upcoming.