Premier League: did the football “managed by micro-genestitis” made it boring?
First of all, to directly face Neville’s comments: are players now “robotics” and are unable to take risks?
Certainly the statistics indicate that the average game of the Premier League is now more focused on the passage rather than welcoming an opposition player.
In this season, according to Opta, there has been an average of 897 steps per game, which approach the record of 945 established in 2020-21.
Compare this with an average of 34.7 dribbling attempted by game, which is the lowest in the Premier League since 2018-19. Attempted dribbles, only 46% have been completed: indicating that players are not so used to trying to accommodate the defenders.
There were also 24 crosses per game, being part of a great drop -down tendency in the championship in the last two decades – that figure was as 42 per game in 2003-04.
This, in part, can be put in Manchester City – since the most successful team of the Premier League of the last few years until this season, their heavy style under Pep Guardiola has influenced the division.
“I was washing the brain of Guardiola, but in a good sense”, the former player of the city Danilo He recently told The Guardian., external It was as if I were at university. It’s not that I was an idiot before I get to Manchester City, but I realized I had played football completely wrong. “
Which raises a key counterpoint to Neville’s point of view, as expressed by Chris Sutton on On Monday of the Monday Night Club BBC.
“What is the difference between coaching and micro-management?” Sutton asked. “When Man City was at the top of the game, they had a style of play and a freedom. Everyone has a role to play, but Guardiola will not put anyone in a shirt of strength.”
The teams that maintain possession have contributed to remedy somehow one of the persistent evils in the Premier League of the last seasons – the low time when the ball has actually been active during a game.
The ball this season was at stake during the games for an average of just over 57 minutes-men of two thirds of the game, but still part of what was generally a constant trend upwards in the Premier League from the Nadir of 2009-10, when the ball was active for an average of only 53 minutes and 25 seconds.
According to Opta, there were 27,719 separated delays to play in the Premier League this season for a total of almost four hours, even if this is significantly down last season, when just over 11 hours of play have been lost.
