Ross County’s last two fixtures have left manager Malky Mackay adamant the Staggies are closing in on a first league victory.
County have only had a point to show from their matches against Hearts and Motherwell, having been in a healthy position in both games.
Against the Jambos, Blair Spittal’s double had put them on course for a victory after falling behind to Liam Boyce’s first-half strike, only for Stephen Kingsley’s free kick to ensure a share of the points.
In last weekend’s trip to Fir Park, Regan Charles-Cook cancelled out an early Callum Slattery goal before the Staggies pushed hard for a winner, only to be hit by a late Tony Watt effort.
The closest County came to securing Mackay’s first league triumph was at Pittodrie in August, where Charles-Cook had them ahead for much of the game prior to Christian Ramirez’s last-gasp equaliser.
Mackay has pointed to a general trend of his team causing opponents problems but not being able to capitalise, and the statistics would appear to back that up.
Throughout most of the season, County’s forward line has been led by Jordan White, who has been supported by a three-man unit of Spittal, Ross Callachan and Charles-Cook in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
The onus has been on all three to provide service for White, as well as each other, and with 27 chances created between them it would appear County’s attacking unit is doing just that.
Spittal’s statistics make for the most impressive reading, with the Staggies vice-captain having created 12 opportunities in the opening seven matches.
Spittal’s key passes graphic (above) shows a wide variety of starting positions, many of which from a deeper position than those of Charles-Cook who has created eight chances.
Between the two it is Charles-Cook who has come up with the only assist, which was for Spittal’s second goal in the 2-2 draw with Hearts last month.
Comparatively, the xG statistics for County’s four most consistently selected attacking players make for interesting reading.
Spittal, who has an xG of 1.40, and Charles-Cook (0.37) are both on two league goals for the season, meaning they are outperforming expectation in this area.
White, who has netted one goal from the spot against Rangers, is marginally under-performing his xG of 1.44, but not to the same extent as former Hamilton Accies midfielder Callachan who has the team’s highest xG of 1.63 but has yet to get off the mark.
The relatively low xG statistics in relation to the chances created by these four players in particular would suggest that increasing the quality of their chances holds the key to the Staggies securing a first victory against Dundee United this weekend, as opposed to improving their conversion rate of the opportunities they have fashioned.
