Data provided by Prozone, the QSL's statistical partner.It’s certainly been a very dominant performance from the top two teams in the league this season. Lekhwiya and Al Sadd have looked the most threatening and their eventual show down in round 6 was always going to be a major highlight of the Qatar Stars League.
First blood went to the Wolves with an assured 3-0 victory over their fierce cross-town rivals - Lekhwiya.
If we delve a little deeper, it becomes apparent that Al Sadd’s achievements are all the more remarkable considering that they have essentially been playing without a classic number 9. Muriqui, their star summer signing and former Guangzhou Evergrande player has so far not managed to play a single game so far this season.
Having scored 52 goals from 92 matches, there was much talk that the Brazilian target man would be the key to restoring Al Sadd back to the top of the standings at the end of the season. However, the striker instead underwent surgery before the start of the season to fix a persistent abdominal problem.
Analysis
Al Sadd have been the best all round team with the most number of different goal scorers , the absence of Muriqui hasn’t dented the Wolves attacking prowess, they have instead relied mainly on Hassan Al Haidos, the attacking midfielder has played 8 times upfront this season.
Even though Sadd have deployed a winger up top, they are still very effective with 55% of their shots inside the box, compared to Lekhwiya (50%) and with a higher accuracy rate too (57% for Al Sadd compared to Lekhwiya’s 52%).
Overall, both teams have had almost the exact same amount of shots in total but again the wolves have 5% more shots from inside the penalty area. Therefore, it seems that the wolves are getting into better positions (closer to goal when they decide to shoot).
However an honorable mention should also go to Al Gharafa who has scored 94% of their goals from inside the box. This compares favorably against Al Sadd & Lekhwiya who both have lower figures with 84% & 83% respectively.
Al Sadd is also putting the ball into the box more than Lekhwiya or even Gharafa. The Wolves play some of the best one touch football in the league and their crosses and through-balls into the box is currently at a healthy 324 whilst Lekhwiya are lagging behind with 308 and Gharafa are on 274.
False 9
Al Sadd are to some extent using the template that Barcelona used to such devastating effect in seasons gone by. With no out-and-out striker, the Wolves are instead employing the false number 9 routine and Hussein Ammouta, it seems has encouraged his wing backs to get further forward to help support in the attacking phases of the game.
AL SADD
Number of different goal scorers & and percentage contribution:
| 1 | Khalfan IBRAHIM KHALFAN | 5 | 19.23% |
| 2 | Rodrigo BARBOSA TABATA | 4 | 15.38% |
| 3 | Hasan KHALID HAYDOS | 4 | 15.38% |
| 4 | Nadir BELHADJ | 3 | 11.54% |
| 5 | Ali ASSADALLA THAIMN | 2 | 7.69% |
| 6 | Jung SOO LEE | 2 | 7.69% |
| 7 | Abdelkerem HASSAN | 2 | 7.69% |
| 8 | Ibrahim MAJED ABDULLMAJED | 2 | 7.69% |
| 9 | Hamza SANHAJI | 1 | 3.85% |
| 10 | Kasola MOHAMMED | 1 | 3.85% |
LEKHWIYA
Number of different goal scorers & and percentage contribution:
| 1 | Nam TAE-HEE | 6 | 33.33% |
| 2 | Sebastian SORIA | 3 | 16.67% |
| 3 | Chico FLORES | 3 | 16.67% |
| 4 | Youssef MSAKNI | 2 | 11.11% |
| 5 | Vladimir WEISS | 1 | 5.56% |
| 6 | Ismael MOHAMMED | 1 | 5.56% |
| 7 | Ali HASSAN AFIF | 1 | 5.56% |
| 8 | Luiz MARTIN CEARA | 1 | 5.56% |
The front men
Looking specifically at the top three teams, Sebastian Soria still clearly plays the highest up the pitch and from all the balls he receives, 17% are in the box.
Contrastingly, Al Sadd’s Al Haidos receives only 6% percent of his balls in the penalty area even though he is meant to be playing in a more advanced poisition. Naturally Haidos is a midfielder so his old habits are dying hard, with the winger still coming short to link up the play with the midfielders who are bombing forward.
Ultimately Al Sadd has ten different goal scorers this season, whereas Lekhwiya have 8 and last season’s champions rely heavily on their South Korean international Nam Tae-Hee who has got over 30% of the Red Knight’s goals.
Whereas Al Sadd goals distribution is more even with no one player having scored more than 19% of their goals.
The secret to Sadd’s success therefore is that their midfield and even defense are chipping in with goals consistently.
Top Scorers
Al Sadd
- Khalfan 5
- Hassan Al Haidos 4
- Rodrigo Tabata 4
Lekhwiya
- Nam Tae Hee 6
- Chico Flores 3
- Sebastian Soria 3
The Asian Cup factor
In January the Maroons will fly out to Australia for the 2015 Asian Cup. Both Al Sadd and Lekhwiya will have many of their players vying for pan-continental glory “down under”, including many of their foreign Asian internationals. This means that both managers will be hoping that all their players come back from Australia injury free!
In Summary
Muriqui’s absence this season hasn’t had a detrimental impact on his team, in fact Al Sadd have mostly used Al Haidoos up front to very good effect.
The difference and the key to Al Sadd’s success has been the contribution by other players in the team and with Muriqui and Khalfan soon to be back, who would bet against them showing another dominant display in the second half of the season?
Al Sadd currently leads the Qatar Stars League with 26 points, Lekhwiya are on 23 and Gharafa are on 20.
Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships – Al Sadd the best all-round team so far read more..... http://t.co/Q3l7gflasE...
— Qatar Stars League (@QSL) November 26, 2014
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