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They are called Referees

Are you for VAR or not?


  • Total voters
    130

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
I hear Jon Moss has had his shop trashed but the PGMOL are going to put him on a panel of tier 1 refs. There's no desire to improve and the clubs should be decisive this summer.
 

Sapient Hawk

Can You Smell What The Hawk Is Cooking?
Trusted ⭐

Country: Saudi Arabia
I hear Jon Moss has had his shop trashed but the PGMOL are going to put him on a panel of tier 1 refs. There's no desire to improve and the clubs should be decisive this summer.

Baseless rumors.

His Galactic Integrity Modulator malfunctioned. The result was that the gravitational field generated by his spherical mass disrupted normal gravity. It was only for an instant, but the results were calamitous! Very much like the refereeing of the man himself :lol:
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Pretty much wish pain on every ref, bar Collina...



...freekick AGAINST Eboue :lol:
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
Great news that Mike Riley has decided to step down. He's quoted as saying that he's "proud of the contribution refs have made to the PL..." so I stopped reading at that point. No indication as to his replacement but first order of business must be to get rid of Stuart Attwell and improve the standard of the refs and application of the rules.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England

Mark Carey
Jul 29, 2022

What typically comes to your mind when a player commits a foul? Probably that it was reckless, perhaps overeager, but usually, it is an unintentional action that inadvertently stemmed the flow of the game — but not all fouls are committed equally.

How often are they committed as a cunning, intentional tactic from a player to break up the play and allow their team to regroup? The dark arts are usually reserved for the most streetwise teams, and the most streetwise teams are often the ones who find a way to win, no matter the situation.

Let’s see if we can tease out the clumsy from the clever…


Simply looking at who made the most fouls last season is, well, only kind of interesting when determining a team’s style out of possession.

For those wondering, Leeds United committed the most fouls with 469 in total (12.3 per 90 minutes) — which makes sense for a side well-known for their dogged running and pressing intensity under Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch last season. A few fouls here and there were simply par for the course.

pl_fouls_per_90.png


At the other end of the scale is a Manchester City side who appear to have a much cleaner record when it comes to discipline — not only averaging the joint-fewest fouls (8.5 per 90) but also the fewest yellow cards in the league last season (1.1 per 90).

This makes sense — City dominate the ball, so they have fewer opportunities to make a foul.

Things get interesting if we dig a little deeper and account for that possession. Then, City — along with Liverpool and Chelsea — jump to the upper echelons of the table for fouls per 1,000 opponent touches.

pl_fouls_adj-1.png


There is undoubtedly a correlation between teams’ pressing intensity habits and those who commit a higher volume of fouls. Teams who look to get tight to their opponents are more likely to bring them down. This explains why we see this pattern above, as Liverpool, Chelsea, City and Leeds were also the four most intense in their pass per defensive action (PPDA) metrics last season.

Nevertheless, we are starting to get some signal among the noise here.


Next up, we can drill down further into the type of fouls each team made — or rather the type of fouls deemed worthy of a booking.

Specifically, let’s look at the share of fouls a team made that were deemed to be a “tactical foul”.

Here, Opta flags a tactical foul when “a player is shown a card for committing a foul that interferes with or stops a promising attack, except where the referee awards a penalty kick for an offence that was an attempt to play the ball”.

You know the type, but let’s run through an example.

Below, we see Arsenal’s Gabriel in possession in Wolves’ half, before a loose pass forces a turnover in play.

ars_wol_1.png


Arsenal have committed six players ahead of the ball, as Hwang Hee-chan breaks away with a potential four-v-four counter-attack.

ars_wol_2.png


However, Bukayo Saka drags down Hwang before he can advance further or make the pass wide in a promising attack. A classic tactical foul.

ars_wol_3.png


A clumsy challenge from Saka? Or an intelligent ploy to stop the counter-attack and allow his team-mates to get back into shape?

The example of Arsenal is a pertinent one, as Mikel Arteta’s men had the highest volume of tactical fouls (as a share of their total fouls made) last season, with nine per cent deemed to be “cynical” by the referee.

pl_tactical_fouls.png


As we go down the list again, we see Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool fall back into mid-table here, where their share of tactical fouls sit at roughly league average.

That may well be true in principle among last season’s top three, but it’s an interesting view when looking at the locations of all the fouls made last season, broken down by zone.

Arsenal and Chelsea make more fouls in the opposition half than most sides, but City and Liverpool are the only two teams who make an above-average share of fouls in the central areas of the opponent’s half while being below average in their own half.

pl_foul_pitch_map.png


Why is this interesting? First, the patterns largely pass the eye test given City and Liverpool’s high line and domination of territory, so they are bound to perform more of their actions further up the field. But their higher share of fouls in advanced areas means that the opponent is often brought down before they can counter — or attack in any way — which allows City and Liverpool to regroup.

They may not be tactical fouls in the pure sense, but they are highly effective and can often go under the radar when the referee thinks about reaching into his pocket.




Again, a foul that might look a little clumsy at full speed, but actually stopped a dangerous counter-attack from coming to fruition.

The speed of City and Liverpool’s counter-press has been analysed by The Athletic, but this is supported further when looking at the time elapsed after both sides commit a foul once they’ve lost it high up the field.

Among all the possessions that start in the opponent’s half, we can look at the share of fouls by each team that are subsequently committed within eight seconds.

Unsurprisingly, City and Liverpool lead the way as the teams who are most likely to shut down the opposition quickly — they have the highest share of fouls within eight seconds of losing possession in the opponent’s half.

pl_fouls_eight_secs-1.png


This will similarly correlate with a team’s pressing intensity, but are fouls committed shortly after losing possession deemed to be less worthy of further punishment?

Coming full circle, we can plot each team’s fouls committed per yellow card last season. As you can see below, City and Liverpool actually got away with their fair share of fouls before being cautioned, managing close to seven fouls on average before the referee went into his pocket.

pl_fouls_per_yellow.png


Of course, it is dependent on the type of foul committed to warrant a yellow card, but the numbers indicate Liverpool and City accrue those smaller fouls that break up the play at exactly the right time.

As devastating as Liverpool and City are on the ball, their street smarts also seem to be well-practised whenever the opposition has a sniff of an attack.

As we enter the new Premier League season, keep an eye out for those moments across all teams, and maybe create your own game with each foul that is committed — clumsy or clever?
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
Cut out a Sp**s/City example because of picture limit:

Take this example from Liverpool’s home clash with Tottenham Hotspur. Sp**s actually play through Liverpool’s press rather well — a pass is played to Rodrigo Bentancur, who flicks it through the gap of the oncoming Andrew Robertson and Jordan Henderson.

Liv_spurs_1.png


The ball does run a little loose to Dejan Kulusevski, with Henderson pouncing on the 50-50 and going to ground. Foul one, but no whistle.

Liv_spurs_2.png


This leads to another 50-50 between Harry Kane and the onrushing Fabinho, who comes from behind to not allow Kane to turn on the ball. Foul two.

Liv_spurs_3.png


As the ball runs free again, Thiago also goes to ground to hack down Bentancur. Foul three, but the referee comes back for the challenge made on Kane. The intention is clear from Liverpool — particularly their midfield — to stop any attack from Sp**s before it can begin.

Liv_spurs_4.png


The same goes for Manchester City. This time from Rodri, whose 43 fouls committed was the highest in the City squad last season, and the joint-12th highest in the Premier League.

Here, we see City in possession high up the field with seven players committed across the forward line (and Joao Cancelo in support) as they seek an equaliser against Sp**s. Ilkay Gundogan plays a simple pass to Rodri on the edge of the penalty area…

mci_spurs_1.png


… whose touch is not tight enough, and three Sp**s players swarm around him to nick the ball away.

mci_spurs_2.png


This sparks a potential counter-attack for Sp**s, who now have Kane, Kulusevski and Lucas Moura darting forward towards City’s exposed back line. But before Bentancur can stride forward, Rodri instantly pulls him back to commit the foul.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
A bit mixed on this. The less you know the better sometimes.
 
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