Norwich have the most accurate crosser in the league – so why so few goals?

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Norwich City have the most accurate crosser in the Premier League in the shape of Robert Snodgrass. But their strikers are letting them down.

At the start of the season I tipped Norwich city to have an excellent campaign. I won’t say exactly where in the table I predicted them to finish for fear of being laughed out of town, but it was high; far higher than the 15th place they currently find themselves in.

In the process of researching for another article, I came across a fascinating statistic – at least for people whose fascination is piqued by such things – and that is that Robert Snodgrass is the most accurate crosser of the ball in the top flight.

That is based on the fact that while he is joint-top with James Ward-Prowse in terms of accurate crosses (46 in the league to date), the Norwich man has made considerably less appearances – 17 to Ward-Prowse’s 23.

So bearing that in mind, Snodgrass produces 2.71 accurate crosses per game.

Given that Norwich invested heavily in front-men last summer, with Gary Hooper and Ricky van Wolfswinkel both arriving at Carrow Road, the fact that they had such a reliable supplier of balls into the box surely meant they would enjoy quite the debut season. But in fact, the Canaries are the joint second lowest scorers in the Premier League with just 19 goals to date.

Van Wolfswinkel is the biggest disappointment, with the Dutchman netting just once in the league to date, and proving I was wrong to tip him as one of the bargain buys of last summer. But if the players can begin to convert the chances Snodgrass regularly lays on for them, they should still have enough to survive.

Just don’t ask me to predict where they will finish – either this campaign or next. For the record – and I still cannot believe how wrong I was – I thought they would end this season eighth!

image: © oliverN5