How Carlisle United's Kristian Dennis broke the 20-goal barrier

From touches to assists, where, when and how he scored, and other key stats behind his season, this is the anatomy of Dennis’s prolific campaign at Brunton Park.

TOUCHES

This alone highlights the nature of Dennis’s goalscoring for the Blues – and how he’s an instinctive finisher that doesn’t need much time before putting chances away.

Some 14 of his 20 goals have been first-touch finishes – so nearly three-quarters coming in the blink of an eye.

One touch is normally enough for Dennis - such as this close-range finish against AFC Wimbledon (Image: Ben Holmes)

Of his others, he’s needed two touches for three, and three touches for the other three.

Numbers that are the hallmark of a predator who knows where the chances are falling. Which leads us to…

WHERE

The perception of Dennis as an 18-yard box operator is accurate based on the way he’s found the net for Carlisle this season.

Indeed, he’s got more goals from the very goalmouth than anywhere else.

More than half his goals – 11 out of 20 – have been put away from the six-yard box.

Dennis has consistently shown an ability to be in the right place at close range - like here against Salford (Image: Richard Parkes)

A further eight have come from somewhere in the penalty area, including a couple of spot-kicks.

The true Dennis rarity is the one goal he struck from outside the box, which came against Crewe Alexandra in December. And even then, he was only marginally outside.

A fox in the box, then, for sure. And in different ways…

HOW

Dennis, although left footed, has mixed things up pretty well on the scoring front this season.

It is true that 13 of his goals have come via his preferred foot, and that’s how Dennis more often then not puts bread on the table.

Some 13 of his 20 goals have come via his trusty left foot (Image: Ben Holmes)

But he also has a good ratio of headed goals, nodding in five – a quarter of his overall tally – this way.

He’s also used his right peg to score twice – close-range finishes against Salford City and Newport County, at opposite ends of a first half. Which brings us nicely to…

WHEN

Dennis has mixed things up in terms of the time of his goals – scoring 11 first-half goals and nine in the second half – but one or two interesting stats emerge from the numbers.

He has had a particular knack for scoring either at the very beginning of a game, or just before half-time.

Four of his 20 goals have come inside the first five minutes, the earliest being a first-minute strike at Tranmere Rovers, with others coming against Crawley Town, Salford and Tranmere again.

Dennis has made a habit of scoring close to half-time - like against Newport here (Image: Barbara Abbott)

Dennis also makes a habit of finding the net just as opponents are thinking about their half-time brew.

Five of all 20 goals he has put away between the 44th minute and half-time.

Dennis has affected interval team-talks in this way with strikes against Colchester United, Swindon Town, Stevenage, Grimsby Town and Newport.

He has not been averse to a late goal either, scoring five of his 20 in the last ten minutes.

His latest goal was the 89th-minute penalty that wrapped up January’s memorable 5-1 win over Barrow.

In all, Dennis’s average goal time for the Blues is the 48th minute.

ASSISTS

As you’d expect with a player racking up so many goals, the assists load has been shared through the team when it comes to setting up Dennis.

One man stands ahead of the rest, though, and it is no surprise that United’s leading assists man overall, Owen Moxon, has aided the frontman the most.

Owen Moxon has assisted Dennis the most so far this season (Image: Ben Holmes)

Moxon has directly assisted Dennis for four of his goals, and that included his first three of the season, against Crawley, Colchester and Shrewsbury Town (the latter in the Carabao Cup), as well as a later assist against Hartlepool United.

Next on the service front are Jordan Gibson and Jack Armer, followed by Jack Stretton, with two in one game at Tranmere.

Dennis has also been set up once each by Omari Patrick, Jon Mellish, JK Gordon and Tobi Sho-Silva, while there have been three occasions when the decisive last touch has come from an opposition player before Dennis struck.

HOW OFTEN

Dennis has featured in 41 of United’s games so far, including 31 starts and ten substitute appearances.

That has yielded 2,709 minutes of pitch time for the frontman.

This means Dennis has scored on average every 135 minutes he is in action for the Blues.

Dennis averages a goal every 135 minutes he's on the pitch (Image: Ben Holmes)

Some 17 of his goals have come when he has started a game, with the other three as a substitute.

He has shown an ability to score in multiples, netting four braces as well as 12 single-strike games.

Dennis goals have come in ten wins, three draws and three defeats in all competitions.

And he has, overall, provided 30 per cent of United’s goals so far in 2022/23 – 20 out of 67.