Stefan Payne: If by a man's goals shall ye know him...

Last year, I reviewed details of Tom Nichols’ performances in season 2016-17 at Peterborough, in an attempt to discover what made him thrive there.
Link to Analysis of Tom Nichols Goals at Posh

Can we learn anything from a similar analysis of Stefan Payne’s goals in League games at Shrewsbury last season?

You can’t score if you’re not in the team. How often did Shrewsbury play Stefan Payne?
Stefan Payne scored ten goals in 38 League One appearances for Shrewsbury in 2017-18. Of Shrewsbury’s 46 League matches, Stefan started in 17 of them.

He played a total of 1772 minutes over the season. That is the equivalent of just under 20 full 90-minute matches of playing time.

Of the matches in which he scored, he came on as a substitute in only three.

Can we learn anything about the type of goals Stefan scored for Shrewsbury?
Most goals were right-footed shots from inside the penalty area; Stefan scored no headers.

The first table below gives a brief description of Stefan’s goals.

The second table below gives links to video where available.

Compare and contrast Stefan Payne at Shrewsbury with Tom Nichols at Peterborough
Whilst both players scored 10 goals in the League in a similar number of matches, Posh gave Tom nearly twice as many minutes (3041’) on the pitch as Shrewsbury gave Stefan (1772’). Tom appeared for less than an hour in only eight of the 43 matches in which he played, with 37 starts, whereas Stefan appeared for less than an hour in 23 of the 38 matches in which he played (only 17 starts). Both players got most of their goals with right-footed shots from inside the penalty area; neither player scored any headers. Two of Stefan’s goals were penalties.

What’s the conclusion?
Even though Stefan Payne and Tom Nichols have very difficult physical builds, they have both achieved good scoring records with their previous clubs mainly by converting scrappy chances. Are they too similar in this regard? Perhaps the problem we have is that we have nobody to create those opportunities of sufficient quality in sufficient numbers. Most of Stefan’s goals came from crosses that were drilled fast across the box or onto the head of another Shrewsbury player. (Stefan’s head rarely came into contact with the ball in the build-up to any of his goals). Only in the last 20 minutes against Gillingham this week did Rovers start to cause the opposition defenders to struggle to clear, despite having several chances early in the game to put good quality crosses into the box.

Table 1: Stefan Payne's Goals for Shrewsbury in League 1 (2017-18) showing minute scored and minutes played.


Table 2: Links to Video of Stefan Payne's Goals for Shrewsbury in League 1 (2017-18)