Because Why Not !

Was still working on the template to generate the output and charts when I put up the first article … get ready for installment #2

Stats Break A | Possession

Just like you tell you players before every match, if they don’t have the ball, they cannot score. And then you go play Super Attacking Fast football and berate them for turning the ball over and losing possession …. wait … what was that ……… aha … yep …. nope …. yes you do …

The profile of possession is what you would expect to see … a few anomalies … Levante and Hellas … and Benfica and City competing well but not (*yet) showing in the results. Now let’s look at the home and away stats ….

Barca bring their own ball and at the end of the match kick it to the opposition and say ‘there you go, you can play with it now’ … Real Madrid and Levante … Levante … what is in the water in that city … some form of go-go juice ? We might need to look at scoring efficiency v time of possession at some point in the near future. The mid-table is congested with teams that are able and capable of catapulting up the standings … the bottom end of the table clearly populated with sides that just don’t have the talent to put out to compete on equal terms just yet …

The big buddha’s up the top like to play keepie off even away from home … and are good enough to do it. Levante, clearly without the benefit of the natural springs of home hold the ball a bit longer. Arsenal, can’t score in the last 30 mins also cannot possess the ball away from home … what is going on ? Benfica hold that ball, but are just not getting the results at the moment.

Now this is the interesting chart …. the Possession Delta … Home v Away.

A positive number (pale green) is the average of your home possession being greater than your away possession. For example, Barcelona, through 10 matches, averages ~4% more possession at home, than when they play away.

A negative number (red) means you are averaging a higher possession away from home. For example, Levante, averages 6% more possession away from their natural go-go juice springs, than they do at home sprinting around the park like a team of Yannik Bolasie and Tony Yeboah semi guided missiles.

Arsenal dominant at home on the ball, but right now it is all like the death throes of the Wenger years … as we say in Texas … all hat, no cattle … just struggling to get it done. Alex has City holding onto a lot of Etihad home ball, also looking to launch his season over the next few fixtures. Some interesting stuff in here.

Stats Break B | Naughty Naughty Boys

And now we turn to the discipline side our game … the yellows and the reds … the AS Roma’s …

Copping a YC during a match is, or even multiples, part of the game. Copping a YC before you take a free kick … don’t get me started about the anomaly …

Some sinners here … and some saints … Gav definitely getting his charges fired up … the ball and the man come at you … only one goes past. Stoke could probably use a little anger and fire, could kick start their season ? Dortmund playing clean and fair … without too much mongrel in them too. Let’s go look at the home and away splits …

Who are the brutes and who are the ‘clean’ teams … Fortresses in Munchen and both Madrid’s … these boys playing with an edge … even Arsenal gets a little nasty at home. Liege and Stoke playing like gentlemen …

Some timid teams away from home … Porto like to mix it up … but AC Milan going hard, studs up. Juventus playing fair (you don’t know hard it is to say that with a straight face …… IRL Dan …. IRL !!). Dortmund take their technical fair football on the road as well. It does look like tackling style is not just a switch in the tactics …

Stats Break C | Sneak Peak …

A preview of some future stuff …

Well it’s good night from me, and it’s good night from him, good night

Until the next update …. and remember … if nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through !