AFC Bournemouth’s long stay in the Premier League have had many factors behind it. Eddie Howe is a one of the most predominant one with the young manager overseeing three promotions for the Cherries. However, another important factor has been the attacking trio of Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser and Joshua King.
Amongst them, Callum Wilson has been the most high profile or the most talked about with the Englishman tipped for a move to the Top 6 clubs on more than one occasion. Ryan Fraser on the other hand, has been a fantastic servant to the club for a number of years although he’s about to leave the club with his contract running down at the end of the season.
Joshua King might have been the least talked about member of the Cherries’s prolific trio. Though his contributions have been invaluable to Bournemouth’s bid to retain the Premier League status.
In this article we’ll be looking at his stats this season to see the underlying headlines.
Joshua King has scored 4 goals and assisted another two in 1,462 minutes of game time with a 0.37 G+A per 90 minutes score. He’s underperformed his expected G+A of 0.46 per 90 minutes. If you compare these numbers to last season’s when he was contributing 0.46 G+A per 90 minutes, which was again below his expected G+A of 0.51 per 90 minutes. Infact this has been a trend with the Norwegian since last three years.
These showcase that he’s not the best finisher in the game but at the same time it says a lot about his sense of positioning and getting into the right areas.
Though what’s been concerning is his lack of shots, he was taking 1.95 shots per 90 minutes on average last season, however, this season his number has taken a dip and he’s now only taking 1.05 shots per 90 minutes.
Joshua King has only improved upon one significant goal contributing stat this season which is his assists. He’s been assisting 0.12 goals per 90 minutes this while he was only assisting 0.09 goals per 90 minutes last season.
In all, it’s clear to see that his output has taken a hit as has his team’s. However, Joshua King continues to perform to the level that he’s made his name for.
