Jonathan David was on top of the world.
A week after the Canadian international turned 22 years old, the Ligue 1 goals leader had put Les Rouges 2-0 up on Honduras, on their way to the first three of nine points collected during the last international break. He would collect another goal and assist, with one goal contribution in all three matches.
A month later, back across the Atlantic, things have come crashing back down to Earth.
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David hasn’t scored in two months for his club Lille, with another empty performance against Lyon on Sunday, Feb. 27 after being subbed off in stoppage time. It’s been since December 22, 2021 that David has found the back of the net for his club, last scoring an 84th minute winner against Bordeaux in a 3-2 victory. Since, he’s gone 630 league minutes without finding the back of the net, plus another 90 minutes in the Champions League.
The Canadian has lost his place atop the Ligue 1 standings, now fifth in the Golden Boot table behind the likes of Wissam Ben Yedder and Kylian Mbappe, among others. His goose egg against Chelsea in the Champions League stopped a three-match Champions League goal streak.
But it’s not just the lack of goals that’s concerning. David isn’t getting service anymore, and it’s led to a drop in quality chances.
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David is not a volume shooter, but instead a player who thrives by finding himself in fantastic scoring situations — whether created by himself or others — and finishing them. On 48 shots this season at Lille, David has a 0.241 expected goals (xG) per shot, an utterly insane number. To put that in perspective, through Lionel Messi’s prolific 2014-15 season in which he scored 43 La Liga goals and assisted 21 more, the GOAT ripped off 187 shots for an xG of 35.89, which equates to 0.191 xG per shot.
That number was even better, however, before the chances began to dry up. Prior to his goalless streak, David was registering an utterly bonkers 0.267 xG per shot. Since, over the past seven Ligue 1 games, David has taken 12 shots totaling an xG of 0.90, amounting to just a 0.075 xG per shot. During that time, he made it two full 90 minute performances without taking a single shot, against Marseille on January 16 and against PSG on February 6.
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While that may be down to a lack of service, David also isn’t creating chances for teammates. He’s picked up just 0.19 expected assists (xA) and distributed just six key passes through that seven-match streak — prior to that, David had collected 4.63 xA and 50 key passes in the previous 18 matches, an average of 0.257 xA and 2.78 key passes per match.
While it might seem that those drop in numbers would suggest a lack of involvement, that’s not the case. David averages 30 touches per match this season — he topped that mark in all but two of the matches across his eight-game scoreless streak, including the game against Chelsea (38 touches) which saw Lille go for large stretches with hardly a sniff of the ball. Even the two matches he didn’t reach that mark, he was extremely close, collecting 29 touches against Marseille plus another 28 touches against PSG in what amounted to a very frustrating performance.
Therefore, only one conclusion can be made: David’s suffering through a quite significant dry spell.
With Canada not mathematically clinched a World Cup spot but very nearly there, even David’s dip in form won’t be a concern for head coach John Herdman, who has developed a squad that plays greater than the sum of its parts. Even the loss of Alphonso Davies hardly saw the team miss a beat. Still, there will be worries of a greater drop in quality for the talismanic frontman, and the more concerning prospect is a trip to Qatar this coming winter with David having completely lost his mojo.
Lille has far less breathing room to suffer through a David slump. Desperately chasing a spot in next year’s Champions League before the impending departure of defensive stalwort Sven Botman this summer, the club sits in eighth place, seven points back of third which represents the final Champions League spot in the Ligue 1 table. There is absolutely no room for error.
The French club will also be worried about the drought, as David has been linked to Newcastle and Arsenal over the past few days, and according to Italian publication Calciomercato, David’s agent has seen his phone “ringing off the hook” with interest over the 22-year-old. If he continues to slide, that interest could wane, seeing his value on the European market drop significantly.
While there’s no doubting his talents and abilities both on and off the ball, there will be some worry about the form of Jonathan David with both club and country relying on his critical contributions to push further towards achievable goals.