Goal involvement stats – the combination of goals scored and assists. Pretty simple, right? Well, yes, it is, but we want to show you how it relates to betting and how you can use one of the strongest data metrics to find value. To do this, we’ve broken it all down into bite-sized pieces so you can rise at the backstick like a CR7 bullet header and tie it to your own betting strategy… or just use ours, if you like.
- 1 What Are Goal Involvement Stats & Why Are They Relevant?
- 2 Understanding Goal Involvement Stats in Football Analytics
- 3 Key Players & Positions for Goal Involvement Stats
- 4 Best Goal Involvement Betting Markets
- 5 Our Expert Goal Involvement Betting Tips
- 6 ThePuntersPage Final Say
- 7 Goal Involvement Stats FAQs
What Are Goal Involvement Stats & Why Are They Relevant?
The total number of goals scored + total number of assists = goal involvement stats.
It’s designed to provide a more rounded view of a player's attacking contribution and, ultimately, their overall output. We use it more now than ever to overcome the blinkered approach of focusing solely on goals or assists, given the game's evolution.
For example, if Jared Bowen has scored 15 goals and made seven assists, his goal involvements for the season would be 22 (15+7).
It’s huge for betting, as anyone who can impact the number of goals scored totally changes the storyline of the game – be it from putting the ball in the back of the net or enabling teammates to do the same.
How Do Goal Involvement Stats Influence Betting Markets?
Players at the top of goal involvements are the usual suspects when it comes to scoring or assisting. It makes sense, right, given that they do it more frequently than the rest of the market?
Without getting too technical, it makes sense to target teams that rely heavily on one star (>50% of team goals scored) to get a goal or even an assist, given their influence within the final third. For example, Liverpool’s Egyptian King, Mo Salah, has been involved in a staggering 63.8% of their Premier League goal involvements this season.
The problem is that if the world knows how influential a player like Salah is, then the bookies know, and he’ll be short odds to score or assist. The flip side is in games where he’s not involved, you could make the argument that there will be fewer goals in total and target the under for total goals or Both Teams to Score No, if you think the drop-off could be that drastic.
Understanding Goal Involvement Stats in Football Analytics
We know that the goal involvement meaning is simply goals plus assists, and from that point of view, it’s as simplistic as it gets in terms of stats. However, it’s also one of the most powerful metrics because it can encapsulate offensive output in a single number, and we’re all about anything that keeps it simple.
It’s no coincidence that the players with the most goal involvements in the Premier League come from teams that dominate possession and are attack-minded. This season epitomises that, with Liverpool’s Mo Salah on the verge of breaking the record with 44 goal involvements and nine games still to go. To put this into context, anything over 20 is deemed an excellent season.
Advanced Metrics: Expected Goal Involvement (xGI) Explained
OPTA created the “expected” metric to determine what should happen in different scenarios throughout a game. For example, let’s assume a penalty is scored eight out of 10 times, which is 80% or 0.8 xG.
For xGI, we’re simply combining expected goals (xG) and expected assists (xA).
Many punters prefer this over the “real” numbers, as it provides a more balanced look at how a player is performing… and we’re inclined to agree. Let’s assume we’ve a player with 15 goals and 11 assists, for a total of 26 GI. However, their xGI is significantly lower, with 11 goals and just 6 assists. They are outperforming what should be happening on the pitch.
From a betting perspective, we know that, over time, the numbers should even themselves out. So, if you’re looking at players who are underperforming in terms of xGI, then we could assume this will change, and we can find value based on this. The flip side is players who are overperforming, whom we’d look to avoid as their hot streak comes to an end and xGI balances out for them.
Does Goal Involvement Relate to Other Football Statistics?
Absolutely. Let’s go back to basics for a second. Football is all about scoring goals. Score more than your opponent, and you win. Sure, there are ways and means, but most betting markets are linked to goal involvement in some form.
The most obvious stats are shots and chances created (key passes is a nice link to this). Players who shoot more generally score more. Groundbreaking, we know. We don’t mean to keep harping on about Mo Salah, but his 2024/25 numbers are so impressive. He tops both the goals and assists with most goal involvements in the Premier League and is right up there in shots taken and big chances created. Logically, the person shooting the most and finding those key passes is going to reap what they sow.
We can expand this further to how GI impacts the team and note how important certain players are to their success. Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak has been involved in over half (52.2%) of their goals, highlighting their dependence on him to secure a result. If you remove a player with one of the most goal involvements in Europe, you can be sure that it’ll have a knock-on effect on markets like match results, total goals, BTTS, and countless others.
Key Players & Positions for Goal Involvement Stats
The biggest contributing factor to goal involvement is position. Forwards or attacking midfielders are, by definition, going to have and create more chances to score because, in the words of Roy Keane, it’s their job! In this section, we’ll look at examples of players and their positions in relation to GI.
Tactical Roles Contributing to Goal Involvement Stats
Modern-day football is a lot more fluid than it used to be. Players often cover multiple positions, and the days of the striker being the main outlet for teams are few and far between. Let’s examine a range of positions and the highest goal contributions this season.
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Pure Poacher (Goal Scorer): A dying art, but the poacher is still highly influential for GI. Involvements primarily stem from goals, as these are players who get into the box and don’t have much to do in terms of build-up. Haaland is the quintessential poacher, with 21 of his 24 goal involvement stats in the Premier League this season coming from him hitting the back of the net.
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Creative Forward: Some forwards like drop deep or wide, linking up with teammates while still posing as a goal threat. Harry Kane is one of the best at this, with 22 goals and seven assists for Bayern Munich this season, highlighting more of a versatile approach to forward play than Haaland.
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Winger/Inside Forward: This is now one of the most important roles in the team. Wide forwards are expected to score and assist, so from a betting perspective, it’s one of the key positions to note for anytime and first scorer bets. The likes of Messi, Mbappe, Salah, Son, Vinicius, Yamal… the list goes on, but they’re all superstars occupying this role.
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Playmaker (#10 or Advanced Mid): Your typical playmaker is going to pop up with a decent amount of goals and assists throughout the season. Their role is more creating chances, but when you’ve the quality of Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes, you’re going to see goals as well. It’s worth checking to see if these players take free kicks or penalties, as this can massively boost goal involvement stats.
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Attacking Wing-Back/Full-Back: Teams that utilise width (Liverpool and other 3-5-2 systems) allow full-backs to play almost as traditional wingers. Trent Alexander-Arnold is a great example of this, racking up a Premier League record for a defender of 13 assists and three goals in the 2019/20 season from right-back. Target anytime assists with attacking full-backs.
How to Identify Goal Involvement Trends?
The number of goals scored per game in the Premier League averages around 3.00, give or take. It’s a number that is on the rise, suggesting that games are seeing more goals and, with it, more assists. We can use this as a general rule for our bets, but the best way to break it down is by looking at individual players.
If you’ve made it this far, you’ll know that Mo Salah has the highest goal involvements this season, and he’s breaking records at the same time. But what’s most impressive about his 44 GI so far is that he’s scored and assisted in 11 different league games this season, shattering the previous record of 7. So, going back to betting, backing Salah for multiple contributions (goal + assist) would make a lot of sense, given that he’s done it in roughly a third of games.
We can then dive a little deeper into micro-trends, such as team distribution. For instance, Arsenal’s goals this season have been spread across multiple players (Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, etc.) with no “leader” like Liverpool has with Salah. Brentford are the opposite of this, with Brian Mbeumo’s 20 goals and assists by far the club's highest. So, when betting on Brentford, we’d target Mbeumo, but for teams like Arsenal, team-based markets such as total goals or multi-scorer bet builders might be a better approach.
Home vs Away Trends in Goal Involvement Stats
We’re not going to win the Fields Medal for revealing that home teams score more than away teams, on average, in the Premier League. But it’s closer than you might think: 1.56 home, 1.46 away.
It’s a small margin, but added up over the course of the season, it can be significant. Home comforts play a role. The crowd is on side, there’s little to no travel time, the pitch is familiar, and there’s a structure in place that allows more freedom at home. Most players score a higher majority of goals at home than they do away.
Most. But not Mo Salah… him again. This season, 16 of his 27 goals have come away from Anfield, which is an unusual split for dominant goalscorers. Interestingly, Alexander Isak has had more “big chances” away than at home. So, while there is bias here, you need to check for individual players and teams to see where the dominance lies.
Best Goal Involvement Betting Markets
There are tons of football betting markets linked to goal involvement stats, so let’s jump straight in to see what they are and how they work.
Like Ronseal. As it says on the tin. Pick a player to score at any point in the match. This can be the first, last or anywhere in between.
This market is where you need to select the first or the last goalscorer in a game. High-involvement players are always good options here or utilise the team's set-piece takers (penalties, free kicks, etc.) to find longer odds and potentially more value.
A market that is growing rapidly in popularity. For this, you pick a player to get an assist at any point in the game. Look for creative players and use betting trends and streaks, where a player has assisted X amount in the last Y games.
The epitome of goal involvements. Some of the best online bookies will label this as “Goal Contributions”, but it just means a goal or assist at any point in the game.
One of the most popular team markets is total goals, which is directly linked with goal involvement. The market will be for an over/under bet on a line set by the bookmaker, usually defaulting at 2.5 goals. Use the alternative Total Goals market for a broader range of options.
Another staple in the football betting sector. Simply bet on whether you think both teams will score or not. Players with high GI make it more likely, but if you’re backing “Yes”, you need them on both teams.
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For individual player markets, it’s always worth checking on sub on, sub off promotions. These are where, if the player you backed gets substituted, the bet rolls on to the replacement. For example, if you back Diogo Jota to score first, but he is subbed for Darwin Nunez before the market closes, then the first scorer bet (and odds) roll over to Nunez.
Key Factors Impacting Goal Involvement Betting
Form and fitness are a good place to start with any betting stat, and GI is no different. High season-long numbers are great, but if the player is carrying an injury or has short turnarounds between games, this will likely reduce their output.
Opposition strength is the next thing to check. A quality defence will be harder to break down. For example, an in-form striker may run riot against the likes of Leicester but may struggle against Arsenal, who have one of the best defences in the league. Before betting, check to see who the goals were scored against and compare that to the team they are about to play.
Finally, we need to look at team tactics. Formation changes or tweaks to the starting lineup can impact the effectiveness of even the world's best. Earlier in the season, Newcastle switched to a back five from a back four against Arsenal, thereby negating the attacking options of Saka, Odegaard, and Martinelli. Teams will often double up on the better players, so take this into account during the research stage of your bets.
How to Spot Value Bets Using Goal Involvement Stats
One of the easiest ways to explain how we use goal involvement stats is to show you. This is the process we use when applying this metric. What we will say is that it’s not necessarily groundbreaking, but it’s thorough, and over the years, this has proven to be the best way to find – you guessed it – value.
Our Expert Goal Involvement Betting Tips
If we could give you one bit of advice… wear sunscreen. Just kidding. We do, however, want to share some expert tips that you can apply to your own bets using goal involvement stats.
Don’t Miss Any Match Stats
Stats are the backbone of our bets, and you can use our handy API tool above to see the highest goal involvements this season across multiple leagues. You can sort by leagues, seasons or use the search function to refine your search.
We’ve included the number of games, total GI and then broken this down between goals and assists. You can even set it to only show players who have made a minimum of 40% appearances or switch the data to show the GI per game, which is arguably a better way to interpret the data.
Always Cross Reference Current Form
Don’t get blinkered by season-long numbers. It’s one of the biggest mistakes that we see recreational punters make with this stat. Sure, you can use this, but look at more recent data to check the current form as well.
For example, Chris Wood is the fourth-highest for goal involvements in the Premier League this season, with 21 in total. But he’s only made one GI in his last four games, so he’s dipping a little. This would make us less likely to back Wood right now, even though his season-long metrics from the Kiwi are exceptional.
Use Bookies with Super Sub Features
We touched on this earlier, but using Super Sub is a must. This is where, if you bet on a player to score or assist or any player-related market, if they get substituted, then the bookie will roll your bet into the person that replaces them. It’s like a double whammy and at no extra cost.
There are plenty of bookies that run this promo, but bet365 is our go-to. There’s nothing you need to do other than check that the feature is accessible with your market.
ThePuntersPage Final Say
A combination of goals and assists. It’s basic, but when used correctly a goal involvement is incredibly powerful for finding value. Take your time to research how the numbers can influence the game, especially when comparing season-long data to current form, with the latter arguably more important. Finally, don’t sleep on assists. Most concentrate on goals, but from our experience, the value is often in the creator, not the finisher.
Goal Involvement Stats FAQs
Goal involvements refer to the combined number of goals and assists a player has. For example, if Erling Haaland scores 22 goals and has 12 assists, his total goal involvements would be 34.
Yes, several, in fact. The most common is a player scoring a goal or assisting on a goal. But you can also bet on things like first or last goalscorer, goals + assist in a game, team total goals, which is directly affected by both these markets.
This is the number of goals and assists based on how many minutes the player has been on the pitch. For example, if they’ve played 1,000 minutes and had 20 goal involvement, their GI per 90 would be 1.8 ((20/1000)*90).
Almost all for football betting. Anything that is linked to scoring a goal, such as first/last goalscorer, anytime assists, team goals, Both Teams to Score, shots and even passes.