New St Johnstone striker Luke Jephcott’s most productive spells as a professional footballer have been with a strike-partner for company.
Steven MacLean paired the 23-year-old with Stevie May on his debut at Alloa and the early signs were encouraging.
The duo combined to set-up Cammy Ballantyne’s 57-second opening goal and there were several other examples of effective combination play between the two of them over the hour and a bit Jephcott was on the pitch.
4⃣ well-taken Saints goals on the road 👏#ViaplayCup | @StJohnstone pic.twitter.com/7mzXmnrUzr
— SPFL (@spfl) July 24, 2023
It’s still only July, though.
And last season’s striking recruit, Nicky Clark, and double-winner, Chris Kane, shouldn’t be too far away from making their comebacks to increase MacLean’s options.
Courier Sport has analysed the most recent StatsBomb data for the four centre-forwards to see how well Jephcott should complement the other three in theory.
Luke Jephcott – the fox in the box
There isn’t a great deal of difference between xG Shot and Shot OBV (On Ball Value).
Suffice to say, the Welshman is very high on both when it comes to his 2022/23 season and how it compares with the English League Two average.
Essentially, xG measures the likelihood of a player’s shot resulting in a goal (not including penalties).
And a player with a high Shot OBV is making good decisions around when to shoot, as well as placing and striking the ball well.
95 and 97 out of 100 is very, very impressive stuff.
As is a goal conversion percentage of 64%.
Given the chance to pull the trigger in the penalty box for Swindon Town last season, Jephcott put away more than one out of two in his 32 appearances.
Stevie May – the non-stop runner
It will probably come as no great shock – and backs up what was seen at Alloa – that May appears to be the most natural sidekick for Jephcott.
As a pairing, Jephcott and May tick a lot of combined boxes.
xG Assists, Pressures and Dribble and Carry OBV aren’t Jephcott calling cards but May is up at 85, 79 and 65 out of 100 in those categories for 2022/23 on the Scottish Premiership scale.
Nicky Clark – the nearest to a like for like
In many ways, the former Dundee United striker has similar qualities to Jephcott.
A Shot Touch total of 70 is excellent and an xG Shot of 60 is also perfectly respectable.
In terms of operating alongside Jephcott, Clark doesn’t cover the ground like May nor will he travel across it with the ball at his feet to a similar standard.
But he’s deceptively good in the air, with a StatsBomb Aerial Wins total of 66 to show for it.
If Saints have runners out wide, this is a partnership that could work.
Chris Kane – the forgotten man
Kane’s 2022/23 season was all but wiped out through injury so there are no meaningful StatsBomb numbers to put into the mix.
Going back to his 18 appearances in the first half of the previous campaign you can see why he and Clark are viewed as cut from the same cloth.
As such, it’s hard to imagine the two of them forming a combination that gets much game-time together.
Kane has previously shown he can combine well with May, though.
And if he can bring the impressive Pressures (77) total of 2021/22 to his 2023 game, he also has the potential to ham-and-egg effectively with Jephcott given his deceptively good aerial ability.
