Nigel Clough’s Squad
Mansfield Town have progressed over the years from a club that has been inconsistent in the league table, to a team that is repeatedly challenging for the paly-offs and automatic places. With this season being their most successful under the helm of Nigel Clough, he has built a squad over four years that can gain promotion to League One.
Before, the appointment of Clough, the club were struggling in both boxes with their average of goals conceded outweighing their goals scored, 1.5-1.3 highlighting the Yellow’s struggles after the departure of manager David Flitcroft.
This is a stark contrast five years on to the current campaign, in which Mansfield average under one conceded (0.9), whereas they almost double this with goals conceded. The graph below shows how their stats have grown.
In Clough’s first season, the stats were almost identical, with only 58 goals scored and 57 points accumulated in the 2020/21 season. In contrast, at their peak this season, they’ve scored 76 goals and reached 76 points with four[1] games to play, two fewer points than they managed in their last play-off campaign and one more than last season. But what are the other lesser-known stats that contribute to the increase in goals scored?
There can be no doubt about the way Clough and his staff have tried to progress Mansfield into a team that can dominate the ball and create “free flowing football”. The first indication of this is the possession that his team now have. The average possession has increased from 48.3% before Clough’s arrival to 53.3% in this current campaign. Whilst this does not guarantee attacking football or scoring frequently, it is a good show of how Mansfield have developed into a team that want to impose themselves in a very physically challenging league.
In addition to this, the increase in possession has coincided with other aspects of Mansfield’s game improving, such as passing accuracy increasing astronomically from being 20th in the league with only 211.7 completed passes per match, suggesting a reason for much frustration amongst the Stags faithful. With their long ball accuracy at 0.9 (ranking eight), this shows they way Stags would play before Clough’s arrival. As he struggled to adapt to this initially, with his first season creating a fall to 27.5. This aspect of Mansfield’s play has hugely improved this season with 33.1 successful long balls [2] showing they have multiple ways of challenging the opposition, and thus allowing them to push their opponents back towards their own goal.
Moreover, the amount of shots on target and the number of successful crosses that contributes to this can be an effective way to judge a team’s performance over the season[3] . The graph below shows the progression of Clough’s tactic of getting shots off has progressed, with an added incentive of “making the keeper work”, as he and his assistant Andy Garner repeatedly repeat with their post-match reaction.
Whilst the Stags before Clough were still highly ranked in terms of getting shots on target (fourth) they have now climbed to first whereas, in his first two seasons they dropped to sixth and seventh. As well as this, their crosses have [4] become more considered under Clough, with it being no surprise that they are third in that category with a 6.0, a huge contrast to his first season in which they were largely wasteful, with only 6 successful, explaining how so few goals were scored.
However, one concerning statistic for Clough is how many big chances they miss. There can be no doubt that they produce one of the highest amounts in the EFL but converting them [5] has not been so successful at times. You could argue this is not a very concerning stat, considering how many Mansfield do score, but 72 big chances not taken would be noteworthy for any team.
This is a huge difference, even more so when you consider only 49 were squandered in his first season and 38 in the season before Clough got appointed. In connection with the other more favourable stats, the last two seasons for Mansfield have seen them jump from 35 (ranked 16th to second in one season. Furthermore, should they go up to League One Clough will certainly hope his team will be more clinical, as they are likely to create fewer clear-cut openings during a season.
On the other hand, any successful promotion winning team needs a good defence, as many managers have insisted “defence wins titles”. A huge problem for Clough was that, whilst his team were high up for scoring goals, Mansfield also had a leaky defence. A problem for any team is going to be averaging under one goal conceded (1. Which was the case for Clough in his first season, along with only achieving 15 clean sheets, the 15th worst in the league.
This stat has improved over time, with the last two seasons getting 14 clean sheets, but is potentially a huge factor with the repeated injuries the Stags have suffered, and the way Clough wants to play. Although, throughout Clough’s time at the club, the keeper has not had to make multiple saves, with 2.4 the average in his first season and in the current campaign as well. The best it had been was, surprisingly, the season before when he faced only 2.2 shots on target despite conceding more goals. So, what other factors contributed to this?
There are many factors in defensive situations that contribute to the expected goals (xG) that Mansfield concede, but these have only been recorded in the last two seasons, 42.0 and 44.1. So, other statistics are brought to the forefront. A huge reason Mansfield are conceding fewer goals is down to successful tackles, as this is the catalyst for defensive solidarity, as this graph shows.
In addition to this, it’s interesting that despite the defence improving, the interceptions made by Clough’s team have gone down from the last two seasons where they were first, showing determination from the players that they are buying into the manager’s methods.
Contrast to this, Clough’s side have fallen in the number of clearances, showing how he has now transitioned his team to playing out from the back, and this has [6] allowed Mansfield to control the ball instead of the opposition. This was a particular problem for him in his second season when they made 22.4, compared to only 18.5 this season.
There can be no doubt about how Mansfield have transitioned under Clough, and the statistic indicates how they have progressed both offensively and defensively, seeing the club on the brink of promotion. It will certainly be interesting to see how the stat differ when competing in a higher league.
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