Dundee are enjoying their return to the top-flight.
Twenty four games in, they are sitting nicely tucked into the top six.
They’ve reached the same points total this season as in their last Premiership campaign (29) and have scored just one goal less than in that whole league season (33 this term).
The Dark Blues have enjoyed some big wins, some great strikes and plenty of dramatic late goals.
Digging through the numbers this season, though, who have been the key Dees under Tony Docherty?
Goals
The most crucial of stats is, of course, goals.
Wednesday night saw Motherwell overtake the Dee on the goal front but Tony Docherty’s side are still fourth in the goals scored table.
Hearts also have 33, alongside the Dark Blues.
Lawrence Shankland has 17 of those. Dundee’s aren’t reliant on one man, however. Instead they spread the goals around.
Amadou Bakayoko and Zach Robinson each have six goals in all competitions to lead the scoring charts, with Bakayoko’s all coming in the league.
(Note: Bakayoko’s opener at St Johnstone in September was attributed to Scott Tiffoney in some places)
An experienced frontman, Bakayoko has been a regular all season and has led the line confidently for his side.
Robinson, meanwhile, has been in and out, but has shown that despite inconsistency he can still finish chances.
Luke McCowan, though, is now hot on their heels with five – all coming in the Premiership. He’s been a real standout in dark blue all season.
A winner against Hearts, a winner at home to Livingston, an opener at Kilmarnock, a key second at Livingston and then Sunday’s pressure penalty – all five goals have been crucial.
He also has three in his last seven.
Not far behind him is Lyall Cameron on four goals as he enjoys a steady run in the team and skipper Joe Shaughnessy, who is enjoying one of the best goal-scoring seasons of his career.
Assists
No prizes for guessing the two names that top the assist list this season.
McCowan is there again, of course. And is joined by loan star Owen Beck.
Anyone who has watched Dundee this season won’t be surprised to see this pair as their two key creators.
McCowan has found a new position in the heart of the Dark Blues’ midfield, conducting from the centre of the park, while Beck has been a relentless bundle of energy, spirit and quality down the left flank.
His cross found Jordan McGhee for the winner against St Johnstone, he found Lee Ashcroft’s head for the equaliser at Aberdeen and he found Shaughnessy’s head for a late equaliser at Kilmarnock. All three of those were in his last five games.
Dundee have found set-pieces a useful route to goal this season and Beck’s delivery from a dead ball has been crucial.
Goal involvements
Now, this stat is a little more niche. However, it gives a good indication as to which players are involved in the most goals.
For the purposes of this article, goal involvements includes scoring, assisting and what we are calling a second assist – a key pass that leads to an assist.
So, for instance, Dundee opened the scoring against Kilmarnock in September through a Beck corner flicked on by Shaughnessy for Bakayoko to score. It is Bakayoko’s goal, Shaughnessy’s assist and Beck gets the second assist.
Once more, it is no surprise to see Beck (13) and McCowan (12) leading the way on this chart.
And, once again, that shows just how crucial they have been to the Dundee attack this season.
Bakayoko (9) continues to show his worth to the team here, while the rest are pretty evenly spread around.
Below Lyall Cameron (5) and Joe Shaughnessy (5) are a clutch of players on three goal involvements – Jordan McGhee, Scott Tiffoney, Josh Mulligan, Aaron Donnelly and Michael Mellon.
Dundee have their key men in McCowan, Beck and Bakayoko.
But everyone in the squad is pulling their weight.
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