Walsall vs Shrewsbury Predictions

Having regained the winning thread against Oxford on their travels, Walsall may have fancied their chances against Accrington on Saturday, though they were once again made to pay for some poor defending, while their attacking efforts were not up to scratch. Dean Keats’ men will be looking to do better when they welcome Shrewsbury to Bescot Stadium on Tuesday evening.

Despite their loss last time out, the Saddlers remain in a lofty position, though they are perhaps lucky to be where they are. For the most part, Walsall have done well going forward; they’ve offered a threat in most of their games and have failed to score on just two occasions, though both of those failures did come on home soil. What’s more, they rank quite well in terms of expected goals for (13^th). However, they’re not exactly peppering teams. Only Bradford have accumulated less shots on target than Walsall.

What’s more, Keats men look one of the worst teams at the back, and not just because they’ve conceded more than a goal a game on average. The Saddlers have looked very open this season, as they’ve tended to give away chances regularly. Only four teams in League One have conceded more expected goals than Walsall, who’re conceding an average of 1.86 expected goals per match, which is far worse than Shrewsbury’s average of 1.3.

As for the visitors, well, if we were to use the league table as a guide, then you’d say that Walsall are a good bit better than their visitors, but in terms of performances, that’s simply not the case.

Shrewsbury have had a solid look about them this season. John Askey’s men haven’t had too much go their way, while they haven’t been prolific in terms of wins or goals scored, but their performances have deserved more. As things stand, the Shrews rank well in almost every area. They’re 9^th in terms of expected goals for, 7^th in terms of expected goals against, while they rank inside the top ten for both shots conceded and shots on target conceded. Moreover, Tuesday’s visitors come out more favourably than Walsall in each of those areas.

The visitors did draw 2-2 with Gillingham last time out, but their performance warranted far more. To be honest, if they deliver something similar against a defensively weak Walsall side, then Askey’s men will do well not to come away with all three points on Tuesday night.

No matter how you look at this game, it’ tough to say that Walsall are better than Shrewsbury in any area; the hosts are giving more away, while they look far less likely to grind out a result. Keeping this in mind, it’s easy to feel that the visitors should be shorter in the betting, so taking the current price about the Shrews makes plenty of sense.