Performance and Playing Styles in 35 European Football Leagues CIES
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CIES Football Observatory Monthly Report Issue 28 - October 2017 Performance and playing styles in 35 European football leagues Drs Raffaele Poli, Loïc Ravenel and Roger Besson 1. Introduction The analysis of pitch performances at both in- dividual and collective level is one of the three principle fields of research of the CIES Football Observatory. The 28th edition of our Month- ly Report compares 35 national competitions across Europe using the database made avail- Figure 1: sample of leagues and number of able by the InStat company. The sample com- matches analysed prises 19,544 matches played between the 1st September 2015 and the 31st August 2017. Assocaton League Nae Matches Austra AUT unesla 355 The analysis focuses on three aspects: the elu BEL Frst Dvson 556 teams’ ball management, the degree of open- elarus BLR reer eaue 454 ness of games, as well as the level of pow- ulara BUL Frst eaue 417 er balance between opponents. For each of Croata CRO 1 354 these domains, we present statistical indica- Cech Rep. CZE Cech a 480 tors that permit the ranking of leagues on a enar DEN Superla 448 pertinent and objective basis. Enlan ENG reer eaue 750 ENG/D2 Chaponshp 1'115 Span ESP a 760 ESP/D2 Seuna vsn 935 Fnlan FIN Veausla 393 France FRA ue 1 758 FRA/D2 ue 2 760 erany GER unesla 603 GER/D2 2 unesla 604 reece GRE Super eaue 500 Hunary HUN I 395 Israel ISR at ha'l 424 Italy ITA Sere 760 ITA/D2 Sere 964 Netherlans NED Erevse 615 Noray NOR Elteseren 462 Polan POL Estralasa 592 Portual POR rera a 556 Roana ROM a I 529 Russa RUS reer eaue 488 Scotlan SCO reershp 421 Serba SRB Super a 571 Sterlan SUI Super eaue 354 Slovaa SVK Super a 377 Slovena SVN 1 S 350 Seen SWE llsvensan 470 Turey TUR Sper 612 Urane UKR reer eaue 362 1 Monthly Report 28 - Performance and playing styles in 35 European football leagues 2. Ball management The first indicator used when comparing leagues from the point of view of ball manage- ment is that of the percentage of successful passes. A high value indicates the ability of a team to retain possession of the ball. This in- dicator notably refers to the technical prowess of players, the pass distance, the playing style, as well as the pressure on the footballers who have possession. The five major European leagues ranks among the first seven places. The ranking of the Swed- ish (3rd) and the Israeli (4th) top divisions is surprising, given the relatively modest results obtained by their representatives in European competitions. As illustrated in figure 3, the lev- el of pressure on the player with possession partially explains this result. As for Israel, the lack of verticality is also to be considered (fig- ures 4 and 5). Generally speaking, the most competitive championships bring together players with superior technical skills and are made up of more clubs whose philosophy of the game is based on possession. Portugal and Ukraine are the only two countries in the top ten places of the UEFA rankings whose level of success- ful passes is below 80%. As shown in tables 6 and 7, this result must be considered in paral- lel with the low level of competitive balance in these championships. Figure 2: % of successful passes, by league 1 ITA 82.4% . HUN 79.6% 2 FR 82.2% 20 O 79.3% 3. SE 82.0% 21 FR2 79.2% 4. ISR 81.8% . I2 79.2% 5. E 81.4% 2 OR 79.1% 6. ES 81.2% . OR 79.1% 7 ER 81.1% 2 SN 78.9% 8 RS 81.0% 2 SR 78.6% 9. R 80.6% 27 R 78.4% 10 E 80.5% . ER2 78.4% . E 80.5% . E2 78.4% 12 CRO 80.2% 30 RE 78.3% 1 E 80.1% 1 SK 77.7% 14. BUL 80.0% 2 ES2 77.6% . FI 80.0% . AUT 77.6% 1 SI 79.9% 34. SCO 77.2% 17 ROM 79.7% . CE 77.2% 18 R 79.6% Averae 7.7 2 Monthly Report 28 - Performance and playing styles in 35 European football leagues The level of successful passes is reflected, by and large, on the average length of a phase of possession. The values for this indicator vary between less than 12 seconds for the Czech 1. Liga and 15 seconds for the English Premier League. As a general rule, the phases of possession last longer in the best perform- ing championships than in lesser competitive leagues. The indicator of the number of successful passes per minute of possession is also in- teresting when it comes to understanding the rapidity of ball circulation. The five major Eu- ropean leagues are in this case in the top five positions. Big-5 league teams are not only able to achieve a greater proportion of passes than the average, but are also able to execute them in a speedier manner. The relatively lower level of passes per min- ute measured for the Swedish and Israeli top divisions in comparison to the percentage of successful passes probably reflects a lesser need to quickly pass the ball around in order to undo the opponents’ defensive game. The same conclusion is valid for the Dutch Eredivi- sie and the Belgian Pro League. Figure 3: number of passes per minute of possession, by league 1 ER 18.21 19. CE 17.56 2 FR 18.17 . ROM 17.56 3. ITA 18.12 . I2 17.56 4. ES 17.91 22 RE 17.50 . E 17.91 . E2 17.50 6. O 17.90 2. HUN 17.46 7 RS 17.88 2 SN 17.43 8 AUT 17.83 2 OR 17.38 9. ER2 17.76 27 ES2 17.35 10 R 17.70 28 SCO 17.33 11 E 17.68 29. E 17.28 12 SI 17.67 30 ISR 17.24 1 SK 17.65 1 BUL 17.17 14. R 17.63 2 FI 17.07 . CRO 17.63 33. OR 17.04 1 R 17.58 34. E 16.90 . FR2 17.58 35. SR 16.69 18 SE 17.57 Averae 17.55 3 Monthly Report 28 - Performance and playing styles in 35 European football leagues 3. Degree of openness The second area analysed is the degree of openness of matches. The number of goals scored is a simple but useful indicator to measure the balance of power between attack and defence according to league. Here also, the gaps observed show up divergences both in the abilities of players and the playing phi- losophies of teams. The imbalance between clubs can also explain some differences (see next chapter). The number of goals per match in the com- petitions studied varies between 2.24 for the Spanish Segunda División and 3.16 for the Swiss Super League. The most open champi- onships locate in Western Europe. The Eastern European league whose teams score the most goals, the Slovakian top division, is only ranked twelfth. The five second division champion- ships analysed are in the second half of the rankings. The big-5 leagues are, on the contra- ry, in the top half of the table. Figure 4: number of goals per match, by league 1 SI 3.16 19. ER2 2.56 2 E 2.98 20 OR 2.53 3. SE 2.94 21 SN 2.52 4. E 2.86 22 E2 2.51 . ES 2.86 2 BUL 2.50 6. SCO 2.84 2. R 2.48 7 ER 2.83 2 FI 2.45 8 OR 2.81 2 SR 2.44 9. ITA 2.77 27 FR2 2.42 10 E 2.75 28 ROM 2.37 11 E 2.71 29. R 2.35 . R 2.71 30 CRO 2.34 1 SK 2.68 1 I2 2.33 14. O 2.66 2 ISR 2.30 1 AUT 2.65 33. RS 2.28 1 FR 2.61 34. RE 2.25 17 HUN 2.58 35. ES2 2.24 . CE 2.58 Averae 20 4 Monthly Report 28 - Performance and playing styles in 35 European football leagues The indicator for the actual playing time per goal also allows us to evaluate the degree of openness of matches. At one extreme, in the Swiss Super League, a goal is scored every 16’17’’ of effective play. At the other, one must wait 23’32’’ to see a goal in Israel. The average for the 35 competitions analysed is 20’32’’. Generally, the duration of actual play is higher in the most competitive championships than in the lesser performing leagues. This result reflects a greater fluidity of the game. The -av erage effective playing time for the competi- tions analysed is 55.6%, with a minimum of 51.5% in Portugal and a maximum of 59.6% in Sweden. Figure 5: effective playing time per goal, by league (minutes) 1 SI 16:17 19. HUN 20:18 2 SCO 18:14 20 BUL 20:32 3. E 18:47 21 FR 20:46 4. E 18:48 22 R 20:56 5. ES 18:50 2 SN 20:59 6. ER 18:52 2. E2 21:25 7 OR 19:07 2 ROM 21:34 . SK 19:07 2 SR 21:59 9. R 19:11 27 FR2 22:02 10 CE 19:19 28 FI 22:15 11 OR 19:30 29.