Albion Analytics: Leo Trossard sets new club records

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Winger scored a hat-trick at Anfield on Saturday.

Liam Tharme

Albion Analytics

2022-10-05T05:00:00Z

Leandro Trossard is four goals short of becoming the club's all time top scorer in the Premier League.

Leandro Trossard set personal and club records on Saturday when he scored a hat-trick at Liverpool, helping Brighton to a point.

Not only was he the first Brighton player to score a Premier League hat-trick but also only the third opposition player ever to net three times at Anfield. Trossard’s two goals in the first half were the first Anfield brace by a visiting player since Amr Zaki for Wigan in 2008.

All three goals were left-footed, the 19th time in Premier League history that a player has recorded a hat-trick in such a fashion, with Kevin De Bruyne (against Wolves in May) the last player to do so.

Brighton are now unbeaten in the last 15 games when Trossard has scored — 12 wins, 3 draws — a run that stretches back to September 2020 and the opening game of that season, a 3-1 loss to Chelsea.

The Belgian has a fantastic record against Liverpool, scoring five and assisting one in seven appearances. That makes them his favourite opponent in his entire senior career, including Belgian sides.

Trossard, who is just four goals away from going clear as Brighton’s top Premier League goalscorer, is having his best season since joining in all key attacking metrics: minutes per goal involvement (96), shot accuracy (47%), shot conversion rate (29%), average xG per shot (0.15), shots and shots on target per game (2.6 and 1.2) and touches in the opposition box (6.7)

After seven games he is Brighton’s best player for non-penalty xG (2.5), successful open-play crosses plus passes into the box (19) and touches in the opposition box (43), but also progressive passes and progressive carries, which he has 37 of each.

Previously utilised as an inverted wing-back under Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi deployed the Belgian in a number 10 style role at Anfield, where he showed his ability to help build attacks as well as finish them — he ranks joint-top among Brighton players, with Solly March, for shots (17) and shots on target (8).

A feature of Trossard’s game has been two-footed finishing and his three left-foot goals at Anfield make it eight Premier League strikes from 72 shots with his non-dominant foot, accounting for 35% of his goals and 38% of his shots in the competition. This season, he has actually had more left-foot shots (9) than right-foot (8).

2022 has arguably been the best year of his career so far and it could, perhaps should, end with Trossard in the gold of Belgium — he has appeared in seven of their eight fixtures this calendar year and has 21 caps (5 goals, 3 assists) internationally.

For club and country in 2022, Trossard has 17 goal involvements (12 goals, 5 assists) in 32 games where he has played a total of 2,149 minutes — that averages out to a goal involvement once every 126 minutes, or better than one every game-and-a-half. And on four separate occasions he has recorded multiple goal involvements in a game.