So Dike has 8 goals in 939 minutes, or 0.767 goals per 90 minutes. None of them penalties. I'd challenge anyone to find a Championship player who's played as many minutes as Dike and has a remotely comparable non-PK goals per 90 rate this season. For reference, Transfermarkt lists all penalties scored for each player. Here's an example for Ivan Toney. Best I can tell, the next best player is at around 0.56 non-PK goals per 90 minutes.
An older profile from MLSsoccer with some additional insight: https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/orla...l-dike-his-journey-belonging-and-his-national
Every other manager in the championship to his scouting director. “Why isn’t that big Yank plating for us?”
Carlton Morris, also at Barnsley, has 6 goals, no penalties, in 758 minutes. It's not quite as good as Dike, but it's close. Marcus Forss at Brentford has 6 in 698 minutes.
Part of the reason I said "player who's played as many minutes as Dike" was to exclude guys who score at a comparable rate on mop up duty after the game opens up. But if it helps, let me be more specific and say that I'm talking about starters for their clubs. Morris has started 3 games and subbed in for 15 more this season. Forss has started 4 games and subbed in for 29 more.
That’s about the most glowing comments you’ll ever see from an opposing manager whose club has no chance to buy the player, and hadnt even played against him at that point.
That's amazing praise, especially from a guy who's been coaching up and down the EFL for over 40 years. Dike is having a fairytale start to his career!
For anyone like me who could only find the tweets that don't actually show the goal, here's the botched coverage of it on youtube, it's at the end of the clip:
Here's Warnock's actual pre-match interview: 2:00 when he mentions Daryl to about 3:30. Warnock's not always so nice:
The Norwegian league is chilling 12 places below the Austrian Bundesliga in the UEFA coefficients, and you’re still wrong besides. Dike is on an absolute TEAR, and I STILL wouldn’t consider him “too good” for the Championship until he plays at least a full season of games at/above Championship level. The sample size is just too small otherwise. I want him to go off to bigger and better things. I’m a sucker for EPL games with Americans in them because I watched a lot of Dempsey at Fulham. But until he goes to that higher level and plays a decent amount of games there, demonstrating his quality, or if he plays well for a full season at the CShip level, I’m not going to anoint him as “too good” for the Championship. Hell, I don’t know if I’d say he’s “too good” for MLS yet, despite his nigh-vertical career trajectory at the moment.
As impressive as the .0.767 goals per 90 minutes is..... forget about that for a second. I have a better stat. I believe it's accurate, too. You ask what could be more impressive than that? Well...... he has 8 goals in 24 shots and 13 on target. 33% of his shots are goals. And it was slightly better at OCSC..... 8 goals in 21 shots, 12 on target. It's clearly a theme. That's better than Lewandowski who coverts 31.8% (35 goals and 110 shots). Not saying Dike is Lewandowski but he's conversion rate is pretty damn good and overlooked. I've hyped the hell out of Dike and he just keeps proving me right. He's quickly becoming my favorite Yank.
Y’a. He should go Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester City. Those teams have all technical wizards, but sometimes they need a strong forward to pound.
Right. I think nobody wants to get ahead of themselves, so we all put limits on him, like “he probably won’t be a big 6 starter, but...” and I think that’s generally a good approach, but there really is no reason he can’t reach the same heights as a guy like Lukaku. I’m not saying he will, but he’s a physical specimen, he has a great work rate, and he looks to be a very good finisher. AND he seems to be improving at a rapid pace. There’s no reason to put a ceiling on his potential until he hits a really dry patch. I was very excited about Jozy when he was young, but Dike is simply much better than Jozy was during his first MLS stint. And I like Sargent a lot as well, but the stats you shared (and the all-important eye test) indicate that Dike could have elite finishing ability. We’ll see how he does against better competition, and it’s unlikely that he is as successful as someone like Lukaku, but as of now it’s not crazy to think that he can be.
Among PL teams, who do we think are most likely to go after him? I can’t see Chelsea going after him as more than a loan project since they already have several guys who can fill that role. city needs a center forward, and I wouldn’t be shocked if they went after him, but I suspect Pep would want someone who is a little more refined. I could realistically see Liverpool going after him as a relatively cheap option to gradually replaced firmino. He’s a very different type of player, but you’d think that Klopp would love his pressing and fsg would love the price tag. tottenham will need a forward if they sell Kane but their fans might riot if levy tries to replace him with an American from the championship. I don’t think Everton would be a great fit as Calvert Lewin is a young British player who would be difficult to unseat. Maybe Leicester would like to work him in as a gradual Vardy replacement? A few clubs like Leeds and burnley would probably see him as good immediate competition for their current starters, but I doubt they could win a bidding or recruiting war if any of those other clubs get involved.
Dike's non-penalty goal rate per 90 is 0.77, which is first in the Championship for players with at least 150 minutes total. Ollie Watkins, Neal Maupay, Che Adams, Oliver McBurnie, Karlan Grant, Matej Vydra are all strikers sold to the Premier League from Championship clubs in the last few years. Their rates ranged from 0.32 to 0.55 with a median of about 0.50. Ivan Toney from this season fits right in with that group at 0.52. Teemu Pukki, who presumably will be in the PL with Norwich, is at 0.60. The low from that group was Karlan Grant who still got a move to newly-promoted West Brom with a non-penalty scoring rate at Huddersfield almost two and a half times lower than Dike's at Barnsley so far. Dike has produced 62% of Grant's non-penalty goal total (thirteen) from the 2019-20 season in 25% of the minutes. Of course, Dike is a few years younger than they were too.