Profiling Open Play Shooters in the 2016/17 Premier League.

Among the many attributes Charlie Adam has bought to the Premier League is his willingness to give it a go from distance.

Whereas most cultured midfielders, picking the ball up in their own half, would only consider their passing options, Charlie can often be seen checking out that the opposing goalie is actually paying attention.

Success from such extreme distance is invariably fleeting, if glorious, but Adam's opportunism has extended his average open play shooting distance in 2016/17 to nearly 29 yards from goal.

This places him top (or if you prefer, bottom) in the list of 75 greatest volume shooters when sorted by average distance from goal per attempt.

Andros Townsend hang your head in shame, (a mere 68th).

"Now if I could just tame this damn thing......"

Sadio Mane is currently the league's anti Adam.

The average distance to the centre of the goal for all open play shots attempted by Mane is around 16 yards, nearly half the average racked up by Adam.

These are useful figures, but it is also helpful to know if Mane is an habitual penalty area shooter or whether no one is safe from Charlie's optimism, but it is relatively rare to see him threatening to get on the end of a tap in from the six yard box.

We can attempt to answer this additional question about a player's shooting profile by measuring how far each of his attempts strays from his average shooting position for a particular season.

In Mane's case, the answer is not very far.

Out of the top 75 volume shooters in 2016/17, he's ranked 10 for sticking close to his average shooting position of 16 yards from the centre of the goal-line.

Adam by contrast is ranked 73rd out of 75 for sticking close to his average shooting position. He pretty much shoots from any and every where.

Here's the full list.

Aguero shakes out as the league's premier goal hanger. His average attempt is ranked the 7th closest to goal and he sticks vigorously to his hunting ground, with England new boy, Defoe running him close.

Mata is the second nearest average shooter, but his 15th ranked variability suggests that he's had a few tap ins from virtually the goal line and he's far from an classic six yard box poacher.

Pogba's a long distance shooter and a relatively high variability rank (low variability) suggests that long distance shots are his gig.

But the prince of long distance shooting with little desire to get into the six yard box is Spurs' Eriksen.

He has a very similar profile to Swansea's Sigurdsson, an ideal transfer target should Spurs require depth in this niche shooting role.

Data from Infogol