Analysing
Europe's Top 4 Leagues - Passing
“There's
something very entertaining about the speed of the Premier League,
but it doesn't compare with the technical brilliance of La Liga [...]
La Liga's pass and move football's better than the Premier League's
blood and thunder approach. It's more cultured, clever and creative;
it's the way football was always meant to be played.”
-
Top Rated Answer to the question 'Which is the better way to play
football: La Liga style or EPL style?' on Yahoo Answer, March 2012
These
articles attempts to examine the extent to which the four top
European Leagues (the English Premier League, Spain's La
Liga, the Italian Serie A and the German Bundesliga)
differ, using statistics from the most recent league season (the
2011/2012 Season). Analysis will focus predominantly on the Premier
League and La Liga.
The
question (and answer) quoted above about 'which is the better way to
play football' defines the styles of the EPL and La Liga as distinct
from one another, and is an example of the general assumption that
each league has its own way of playing, its own footballing identity
unique to that country's league.
Stereotypes
and Expectations
A
quick google search of 'style of play' preceded by each of the four
countries, reveals the styles that are most commonly attributed to
each league. For La Liga, the first result is a wikipedia article on
Tiki-Taka, for England a wiki article on Long Ball, for
Italy a wiki article on Catenaccio. There is no single
playing style stereotypically associated with German football, but
the word 'efficient' seems to be frequently used on discussion forums
and question and answer websites, and of the three it is probably
most associated with the perceived direct and fast-paced style of
English football. These tags more or less sum up the type of
football usually deemed typical of each nation's league by fans and
even by TV pundits:
Premier
League: very fast-paced, open, direct passing, 'blood and
thunder' approach, with more emphasis on the physical than the
technical or tactical.
La
Liga: creativity, short passes, technical brilliance, more
'cultured', a strong emphasis on the technical over the physical.
Serie
A: defensive, cautious, slow-paced, tight, counter-attacks, an
emphasis on the tactical.
Bundesliga:
fast-paced, high-scoring games, similar to the Premier League but
perhaps less extreme (in other words slightly less physical and more
technical).
If
the stereotypes are to believed, the four leagues are quite different
and distinct in their styles, and one would expect these differences
to be reflected in the statistics from each league. In particular a
notable difference between the English and Spanish leagues would be
expected, with the supposed 'blood and thunder' directness of the
Premier League contrasting with the 'cultured' passing of La Liga.
In this article I will use the statistics from the 2011/2012 season
to attempt to answer the following questions:
-
Are there major statistical differences between the four leagues? If
so, what are they and what do they tell us about the overall playing
style in each league?
-
To what extent are the stereotypes associated with each league's
playing style true?
We'll
start by examining the statistical variable which I believe to be
most indicative of playing style – Passing Stats.
Tiki-Taka
and Hoof-Ball: Barcelona and Stoke as Opposing Models of Passing
Style
When
we talk about differences in playing style, usually the first thing
that comes to mind is the way in which a team passes the ball. This
is logical – the most noticable difference between the way teams
play is in the way they use the ball when in possession. When we
hear terms like 'tiki-taka', 'possession football' or 'cultured' to
describe La Liga, or 'Long-Ball', 'Direct' or even (to some extent)
'physical' to describe the Premier League, it is the passing style
that is being referred to. Anyone who follows these leagues knows
that Barcelona (Tiki-Taka) and Stoke City (Long Ball, or what is
commonly derogatorily referred to as 'Hoof-Ball') epitomise these two
approaches; Barcelona play a lot of short passes to retain possession
and dominate the ball, while Stoke tend to 'hoof' the ball long and
play a lot of crosses, hoping to use their physical superiority and
aerial power to full effect.
We
don't need statistics to tell us that Barcelona and Stoke are worlds
apart in terms of style. However, by analysing the passing of the
two teams we can statistically verify that these differences are
reflected in the way each team passes the ball, and also discover
what proportions of certain types of passes make up the typical
composition of tiki-taka and long-ball approaches. In other words,
these two extreme examples of each style can serve as blueprints of
each style, which we can later use to compare the average passing
statistics of each league.
The
stats register all attempted passes, thus both completed and
uncompleted passes are registered. The passes are broken down into
four categories:
-
Short Passes, Long Passes, Crosses, and Through Balls.
Below
are pie-chart representations of both teams' passing stats, with
percentages.
We
can see that even a long-ball team will still play more short passes
than long – this makes practical sense and should come as no
surprise. However it is clear from looking at the pie-chart
representation that the obvious difference in playing styles is
significantly reflected in the teams passing stats; as expected
Barcelona play more short passes and through balls than Stoke and
Stoke play more long balls and crosses. Stoke play roughly 3
times more long balls and crosses, while Barcelona play an incredibly
high 13 through-balls per game on average, compared to Stoke's 1 per
game. The difference in the quantity of short passes between the two
teams is not fully visible in this proportional representation, but
on average Barca play 436 more short passes a game than Stoke –
close to 3 times as many.
These
passing stats, then, can be seen to be representative of the
contrasting styles of each team. However perhaps they don't fully
represent the extent of the differences, as many of Barca's long
passes might be raking lateral passes designed to switch the play,
which don't really constitute a 'long ball' game. Likewise Stoke
might clear a lot of balls long instead of taking the ball in to pass
– this won't be registered as a long pass but still constitutes
part of their 'no-nonsense' defensive play. There is another stat
which may further reflect the differences in playing style between
Tiki-Taka and Long Ball – Aerial Duels Contested.
It
stands to reason that a team playing a lot of long balls up the field
(whether they be picked-out passes or just hoofed clearances) will
contest a lot of aeriel duels. Here we can perhaps further
distinguish between the two sides, as we would expect Stoke to
contest a far higher amount of aerial duels in their matches. Here we can see that Stoke contest more than double the amount of aerial
duels than Barcelona.
Thus
the amount of Aerial Duels contested in a league over the course of a
season can serve as an indication of that league's playing style, and
we should be expecting to see the most amount of aerial duels in the
Premier League.
One
might reasonably argue that these differences in passing stats is
more reflective of quality rather than style, considering that Stoke
are typically a low-to-mid-table club with a modest budget while
Barcelona are arguably the best team in Europe with a squad littered
with top quality players. To counter this claim I will add the
passing style of a team comparable in quality and stature to Stoke, a
team which finished with just 2 points more than Stoke last year, but
who attempted to adopt the 'tiki-taka' style usually associated with
Spanish football – Swansea City.
Swansea's
manager last season, Brendan Rodgers, has openly stated his
admiration for the Spanish 'tiki-taka' style and attempted to
implement a version of the possession-based football at the Welsh
club. Looking at the pie-chart for passing, we can see that their
passing statistics are much more similar to Barcelona's than Stoke's.
If Swansea were indeed trying to emmulate Barcelona's passing style,
the statistics would show they did a pretty decent job. The main
difference would be their relatively high proportion of long balls
(11.1%) compared to the 'ideal' Barcelona model (just 7.3%), as well
as a relatively low percentage of through balls compared to the
Catalan pass-masters. These differences can be explained by the gulf
in class between the two teams, as it is generally accepted that
playing an exceptionally large proportion of short passes is more
difficult and requires a higher degree of composure and technical
ability than playing it long, and that playing a high quantity of
through balls requires the type of excellent vision and execution (as
well as intelligent movement off the ball) that only top class
midfielders and forwards possess. Barcelona played by far the most
amount of through balls last season throughout Europe (averaging out 13 per game),
while other teams which played a high quantity of through balls were
Arsenal, Manchester City, Juventus (all 8 per game), Real Madrid,
Napoli and AC Milan (7 per game), confirming the hypothesis that
attempting a lot of through balls generally requires a very high level of
passing quality and movement usually only possessed by top clubs.
Despite
these shortfalls, overall Swansea's passing stats, when compared to a
team of similar quality (Stoke) and similar style (Barcelona),
suggest that while a team's passing statistics can be influenced by
the teams quality, they are much more indicative of playing style.
Looking at Swansea's Aerial Duels per Game figure reinforces this
contention – their 14.9 contested aerials per game is far closer to
Barca's low number (11.6) than Stoke's high number (26.1).
In
other words, as we might have expected, a team's passing
statistics and aerial duels contested are representative of that
team's playing style.
Of
course, it has to be noted that the above examples are extreme
examples, and thus we should not expect to see such extreme
differences between each league as we do between Stoke and Barcelona;
there are teams that play a mix of styles that can not be as rigidly
defined as Stoke, Barcelona and Swansea can, and the differing styles
of different teams within the same league should level out the
statistical representation somewhat.
However,
if the stereotypes are to be believed and there is
indeed a prevailing influence of certain styles in each league, then
we would expect to note at least a modest difference between the
passing stats, and in particular more long passes in the Premier League,
and more short passes in La Liga.
The
Results
At
a glance, looking at the pie-charts, we can see that the passing
styles amongst the four leagues are very similar, with all leagues
playing in and around 80% of their passes short and about 14% long.
Crosses make up between 4 and 5% of total passes, while throughballs
are around 1% or less.
As
we can see from looking at all four charts together, the passing
styles are not as distinct as the stereotypes would have us believe
and there is little significant difference between each league.
In
particular, one might have expected the blue Short Passes piece of
the La Liga pie to be larger than the corresponding blue sections of
the other pies. Likewise, if we are to believe that 'hoofball' and
direct passing still predominate in the Premier League, we might have
expected the Long Pass section of its pie to stand out from its
European counterparts.
However,
a quick glance is perhaps not enough, and we should look closer at
the actual figures before drawing any definitive conclusions.
Short
Passes: It is perhaps surprisingly the English
Premier League which plays the highest proportion of Short Passes
(82.4%). An average of 23 more short passes a game are played in
England compared to the continental leagues. These statistics show
that, despite a few teams still adhering to the long-ball style, the
league as a whole more closely resembles Swansea's short passing
model rather than Stoke's long-ball style.
Long
Passes: With 15.3% of their passes going long the German
Bundesliga play the most long-passes, meaning it can perhaps be
classified as the most direct league. However, the differences
across the leagues are not very substantial. It's interesting to
note that again the general perception of the difference between La
Liga and the Premier League is reversed, with more long passes being
played in Spain (13.5%) than in England (12.4%).
Crosses:
The highest proportion of
crosses take place in Italy's Serie A, but again the differences
across the leagues are minimal.
Through
Balls: This category takes up
such a minimal slice of the pie in each league that one might be
forgiven for dismissing its statistical importance. It is here,
however that we perhaps see the biggest difference between each
league's passing stats. As mentioned earlier, playing a through ball
(defined as a 'defence-splitting pass') is a difficult skill to
accomplish, so will not be attempted frequently, and will usually
only be attempted at the end of some build up play consisting of
other types of passes, hence it's small proportional reflection here.
Even the through-ball masters Barcelona play less than 2% of their
passes as through balls. As they make up such a small percentage,
the differences between the leagues are difficult to guage
proportionally and would be best looked at by the average per-game
amount of through balls played in each league last season.
Serie
A sees the most amount of through balls, with Bundesliga playing the
least. If attempting a defence-splitting pass is an indication of a
high level of passing ability, intelligent movement and creativity,
then it is perhaps here that finally we see some indication of La
Liga's supposed superior passing 'culture' compared to the Premier
League – roughly 3 more through balls are played a match. However,
despite containing the team with by far the highest quantity of
through balls, La Liga still falls short of Serie A's 10.1 through
balls per game, suggesting that the most creative passing takes place
in Italy, although there are of course other factors at play here - the amount of time on the ball generally permitted to players, or the depth of defensive lines could effect this statistic.
When
we looked at the difference between the stats represented by a
typical long-ball team and a tiki-taka team, we noted that, as logic
would dictate, long-ball teams contest far more aerial duels
than teams that play short passes. So it is worth looking at this
stat to further illustrate the passing style of the four big leagues.
Again
we see that the stereotypes don't hold up – in fact they are
reversed. La Liga contest the most amount of aerial duels with an
average of 25 per game (suggesting the ball spends a lot of time in
the air) while the Premier League has nearly 4 less, meaning it
is the league in which the ball perhaps spends most time on the
ground. An even more startling representation of aerial duels which
shows just how wrong the stereotypes are, and the folly of basing
them on just one or two teams, is when we look at Stoke City in comparison to 9 (!) Spanish clubs which contested more aerial
duels last season.
As
we can see from statistics, almost half of the supposedly 'cultured'
La Liga teams contest more aerial duels than the oft referred to
'cavemen' of Stoke. I have added in the low tallies of Real Madrid
and Barcelona as an indication of a possible source for the misguided
beliefs about the passing style in La Liga – as much of our viewing
of La Liga is restricted to these two teams, our opinion of the
league as a whole is formed by them and them alone.
Conclusions
There
are some small differences in the passing style of the four major
leagues, but they do not contrast as strongly as stereotypes often
suggest. The variance in the quality and style of each team within
each league levels out the passing statistics so that overall it is
not possible to ascribe a certain passing style with a particular
league – the idea of a league having a particular passing style is
a myth.
If
we take passing stats as a strong indicator of overall playing style,
then we can perhaps suggest that it is also false that there are
significant differences between each league's overall playing
approach and philosophy. Teams vary (often due to the variance in
quality) – leagues as a whole don't (at least not to any great
extent).
If
we do look at the small differences the stereotypes are negated even
further. The idea that the English style is predominantly
long-ball is redundant and ill-informed. If we assume that a high
proportion of short passes and a low amount of aerial duels is
representative of a short passing style then it is the Premier League
which plays the 'purest' football. Likewise the belief that there is
an overriding tiki-taka approach taken in Spain and that La Liga sees
'purer' or more 'cultured' football is a myth – Barcelona are the
exception not the rule.
There
could be several reasons for the perpetuation of these false beliefs.
Like any false stereotype, laziness is a big factor. Fans and
pundits alike repeat what they have heard and don't bother to
challenge it by looking at the facts. It's easier to accept these
general truths, especially when 'experts' regurgitate these same
ideas, giving them further credence.
People
like to compartmentalise, so it's natural that tags such as
'cultured' and 'blood and thunder' will stick to certain leagues, as
it becomes easier for the fan or pundit to understand a whole league
without resorting to watching 15 hours of football every week – and
this takes me to my next more concrete explanation.
If
you were to truly understand the style of each of the entire 4
leagues (and not just a few select teams in it) you would have to
watch 57 hours of domestic football every week. Clearly nobody has
the time to do this. In fact most would find it difficult to fit
more than 3 or 4 games into their weekly schedule, and many more
would watch even less. How can one expect to describe a style of a
league of which they are only seeing 30% or less of the matches?
Highlight shows will help to a small extent but it is impossible to
draw many detailed conclusions from highlights alone.
How
many people watch Osasuna take on Mallorca in La Liga? If they did
they would likely see a huge amount of long balls being played and
many aerial battles. Yet these teams are ignored when we label the
league as predominantly a short passing league and only Barcelona and
Real Madrid (and perhaps to a lesser extent other Champions League
regulars such as Valencia) are considered.
Another
possible reason is a knock-on effect from national teams. The
Spanish national team have been the pioneers of tiki-taka alongside
Barcelona and they tend to dominate the ball in every game – in
Euro 2012 they averaged a very high 65.2% possession and played 88.4%
of their passes short. England, on the other hand, have often
conformed to their 'long-ball' stereotype. Their failures in recent
tournaments have often been attributed to a lack of a ball-playing
midfielder who can dominate possession. At the moment their manager
is Roy Hodgson, an advocate of a direct playing style – in Euro
2012 they had one of the lowest possession stats with an average of
just 39.8% possession. Italy's national team have historically based
their success on a solid defence and have produced arguably the
greatest defenders in the world over the last few generations. Their
last international success at the 2006 World Cup was predominantly
based on a very solid backline. This is a possible source for the
idea that Serie A is a defensive and tactical league (but we will
come to this in a later article).
So
while the national teams might conform somewhat to the expectations,
the domestic leagues (at least in terms of passing style) don't.
This is no surprise given the high quantity of foreign players (and
in the case of the Premier League, foreign managers) in each league.
Of
course when we talk about differences in each league, there is more
than just passing to discuss. In the next article I will look at
other stats across
the four leagues to further determine the extent of their differences
and what these differences consist of.
However,
I believe passing statistics are probably the strongest indicators of
differences in style, and the results from the 2011/12 season show
that many of the typical beliefs about these differences are false.
All statistics are taken (or have been calculated) from www.whoscored.com (which uses Opta stats) and have been rounded to one decimal point.
Follow me on Twitter: @ErwinMorzadec
Follow me on Twitter: @ErwinMorzadec
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