The Pre-Game xG Philosophy: A Football Fan’s Guide to Forecasting Match Outcomes

More than 500,000 people follow The xG Philosophy on Twitter, a popular account that debriefs post-match expected goals (xG) results.

With so much interest in this metric, why not capitalize on its popularity?

Instead of merely reporting on outcomes post-facto, take control of the metric and use it to predict the outcomes of games.

This guide aims to help you leverage pre-game xG statistics to forecast the future results of football matches, extracting valuable insights about each team’s performance potential.

You will learn how to create pre-game xG match ratings for upcoming fixtures and how to link those to historical data to gain a clearer understanding of the most likely future outcome.

Most importantly, you will learn how to generate automatic game week reports in a matter of seconds with our specially designed application using the publicly avaiable Google Sheets. All you need is a Google account to start generating xG reports for 17 leagues of your choice.

This guide is organized into five sections.

1. We start with a synthesis of what this guide aims to achieve. We will explore how a seemingly simple statistic like expected goals can convey a wealth of valuable pre-game information.
2. Then we follow up with a primer on expected goals. We will define what xG represents, discuss its biggest advantages, and explain why it is an effective metric to measure a team’s form.
3. In the third section, we will detail how to transform years of historical data into actionable match-day insights. In particular, we will demonstrate the logic behind creating an xG difference match rating system that quantifies the likelihood of a football game ending in a home win, draw, or away win.
4. In this fourth section, we will demonstrate how to combine data-driven xG insights with league-specific knowledge effectively. You will learn how to analyse the results from xG reports that you have created and refine the likelihood probabilities and trends that these reports generate. This process involves critically evaluating the data-driven insights to either challenge or confirm their validity, thereby providing a more nuanced understanding of what xG data can – and cannot – reveal about upcoming matches
5. In this fifth and final section, we will illustrate how to launch and use our application that will automatically generate game week xG reports for the football leagues available on FBREF: the English Premier league and Championship, the Italian Serie A and B, the German First and Second Bundesliga, the Spanish La Liga and Segunda Division, the French Ligue 1 and 2, the Dutch Eredivisie, the Portuguese Primeira Liga, the Belgian Pro League, the American Major League Soccer, the Mexican Liga MX, the Brazilian Serie A and the Argentinian Primera Division.

The free version includes a working application covering the Engish Championship and the American Major League Soccer.

If you're unsure about purchasing, please consider testing the free version first.

Disclaimer:

The Google Sheets template provides a simple interface that loads the current season's scores and fixtures from FBREF. If FBREF discontinues coverage of a league, that league will no longer be accessible through the template, as access depends on FBREF's continued coverage.

This application is designed for the 2024/25 season and does not automatically support future seasons. If FBREF does not change its website, the application interface should normally continue to work for the new season.

The template uses the Google Sheets function IMPORTHTML to fetch data from FBREF. Neither you nor the author owns this data; the template's functionality is reliant on the availability of data from FBREF, which is hosted by FBREF and owned by OPTA.

The author provides no assurances of financial or betting outcomes resulting from the use of the material presented in this guide. The content shared is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as professional financial or betting advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions.

Readers must recognize that their ultimate success or failure depends on their own efforts, individual circumstances, and numerous factors beyond the author's knowledge and control. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The author shall not be held liable for any losses, financial or otherwise, incurred as a result of using the information contained in this book.

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