The mathematics of football
Location of goals scored in Premier League 2011-12 Season. Look at 0.094! That means a goalie scored from his own area? Any idea who it was? We will show you at the end if you don’t!
Break down of Attacking areas in Premier League 2010- 2011. Most Shots are targeted from 0 degree position. Further breakdown of this data shows that 44% of shots are outside the area, 49% are inside the 18 yard box and only 7% come from the six yard box.
What a strike force Liverpool had in season 2013-14. One Slip up Away from the Premier League! Remember Suarez, Sturrridge and Sterling scoring the goals with Gerrard and Coutinho providing the Ammunition? Look at the shot breakdown. The data shows how confident they were. These guys were attempting to defy Science! 42 shots from Deep centre! Wow! I wonder how many goals did they Score?
Well they didn’t just try to defy Science. They absolutely did!!! Look at the goals data. 2 goals from what appears 85 degrees left and look closer again, one goal sored from deep centre!! The Science still stacks up though, the majority of goals scored from 0 degrees. Liverpool's left side also appeared to out perform the right side with another goal scored from wide left. How did they not win the league with all these goals? Well you have to keep out goals as well and that’s why Man City won the league in the end.
Liverpool really channelled goals through 0-65 degrees that season. The data shows that the team really focussed their tactics around Suarez and Sturridge, with most goals coming from inside the area .
37% of the 19 goals Arsenal had scored to this point had been low centre indicating that they are tap ins from about 6 yards. This tells us that the ball arrives at the goal scorer’s feet from a pull back at the bye line. Keep an eye out for this the next time you watch the Gunners. The next graphic shows where Arsenal had created chances on the pitch. Over half had come from the area in front of the 18 yard box but no goals had been scored from this position. Maybe they needed to buy a new right sided midfielder or striker to convert these chances? This proved unnecessary as a year later Ozil is now the assist king of the Premier League, Giroud is scoring too and Arsenal are favourites for the league. How times change !!
Below is Arsenal’s shot accuracy for the early part of the 2014-15 season. Less than half of the attempts had hit the various targets. So for example high left resulted in only 5% of the shots aimed at this area, resulting in one goal. Time for a new striker Mr Wenger? According to the data he needed one at this point, however he stuck to his guns and kept faith with the players he had resulting in Arsenal being top of the league a year later. A perfect example of practice makes perfect.
When Mr Maloney was in 5 th and 6 th class, Nottingham Forest were brilliant! They won two European cups and umpteen other trophies but unfortunately they’ve hit on hard times. Here's another breakdown of their goals scored in the Championship last season. Only 2 goals scored from 0 degrees inside the 18 yard box! The data shows that the midfielders need to contribute more as most of their goals are coming from their centre forwards. 41 goals in 42 games isn’t going to get promotion. The data tells us they need more goals from midfield.
Nottingham Forest’s Assist areas. We call setting up a goal an assist The crossing looks very poor from the data. Only 7 assists from 0 to 65 degrees left and right. No assist from corners on the right side from 90 degrees. Not good enough!!!
Break down where and how Premier League goals are scored over the course of Season 2014-15 in Premier League. Interesting to note first time strikes from centre of goal from 0 degrees to 65 account for most goals. Most headers are also scored inside the penalty area from angle 0-65 degrees.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored 150 goals for Manchester United. Only one of those goals was scored from outside the box. Arguments were made by some fans saying that Henry was better in terms of all round game and could do more in midfield areas of the pitch. (Mr Maloney was in the Henry camp). Other fans claimed that the mark of a striker was the ability to get in free positions at close range and hit the target. We will leave that debate for another time, but one guy who scored a 150 goals and more was actually a midfielder! His name was Frank Lampard! Here's a break down of the 150 goals he netted. About 78% of his 150 goals were scored from inside the box and 9% from inside the 6-yard box. The majority of his goals, 53 percent, were scored from around the penalty spot -- mainly because some of them were, well, penalty goals. From the data this guy really understood the concept of angles and distance!!! Pity he’s not here today to explain it to us. WELL, THAT'S ENOUGH statistics on the 150 Premier League goals by Frank Lampard -- a striker trapped inside a midfielder's body. I'm sure this goal record will stand the test of time for many years to come.
Barcelona have revolutionised the game of football in the last decade. Football statistics, analysis and studies proved that the zone 14 , the area immediately outside the penalty box, is vital to use in order to score goals from assists begun from that area. By effective use of that area more goals can be produced from open play. Barcelona looked to dominate that area by placing more players in this area with great technical skills. While other teams in the past (France 1998 / 2002 – Zinedine Zidane) used one player in that area Barcelona set up their team with no less than three skillful players in this zone with Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi. These players are all able to make those final passes which unlock defences, either with excellent vision, sublime technique or a lethal mix of balance, low centre of gravity, acceleration and dribbling!!! While these players looked to dominate that area, the two inside forwards (Suarez, Neymar, Henry, Eto or Messi himself would stay right outside zone 14 looking to run into the penalty box penetrating the defensive line. While these players focused on creating goal scoring opportunities, the holding midfielder in Busquets would give cover forming a solid diamond or a rhombus . Who knew shapes could be so interesting.
Here’s more on Zone 14. The first example of a team using this zone is the France national team from 1998- 2000. In July 2000, France became the first nation to win the European Championship (2000) as World Champions (1998 ). (In Mr Maloney’s opinion they were better than Barca or Spain.) It was found that 81.3% of their assists in the two competitions came from this central area. In other words, France’s attacking play was narrow. Another finding showed that the majority of France’s attempts at goal came from the central attacking area just outside the penalty area (The second example is Manchester United FC (1998-99), which was the first English side to win Premiership, F.A. Cup and European Champions League in the same season.
More Maths Facts How to win at penalties using The perfect football statistics A lot of research has been done into • Football statistics appear • what makes the perfect football. everywhere, but could you actually Applied mathematics research has win at penalties using statistics? shown that the smoothness of a football affects the spin and speed Researchers from the University of of its flight. In 2006 the traditional Amsterdam have studied World Cup 32 panel football was radically Penalty shoot outs and found that modified to have fewer panels which statistically goalkeepers are twice caused the ball to have less spin and as likely to dive to the right when to move much faster. To overcome this, researchers added pimples onto their team is behind. (Psychologically the ball to create less drag. The there seems to be some reason that design of the football continues to people have a bias to the right when evolve based on mathematics and physics research and now has even under pressure.) Penalty takers on fewer panels than in 2006 the other hand were shown to shoot to the left or right in equal measure. If you were England manager then this kind of statistic might just help you!
Optimal Angle for a Throw In Researchers at Brunel • University have shown that the angle which will maximise the distance of a throw in is around 30 degrees. Anyone learning mechanics will know that 45 degrees is the usual angle which will maximise the distance that a projectile travels when launched at a certain speed. The researchers have however shown that footballers can usually throw at higher speeds from lower angles meaning that the best angle is around 30 degrees, not 45 degrees as you might have thought.
Referees and Maths In professional football • referees use what is called the diagonal system of control (DSC). This is where two assistant referees move up and down diagonally opposite touchlines and the referee moves in a diagonal movement Southeast to Northwest. This formation has been chosen to maximise the amount of the pitch which is in the sight of the referees. If the referee just ran up and down the centre of the pitch then there would be parts of the pitch which weren’t covered as well, whereas geometrically this formation covers the pitch much more efficiently.
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