In 2021, football continues to be one of the most popular sports in the world, if not the most popular one. Stories have been told about it, songs have been sung and the sport has been celebrated in so many ways throughout the years due to its incredible flow and unpredictability. One of the topics that do not get so frequently discussed when talking about football is the topic of statistics.
A brief history and use of statistics in football
The history of football is not the longest one, especially compared to the history of statistics in American baseball or basketball. Even though statistics have been used in football over the years, covering a range of data from possession to fouls that were committed during the game, it wasn't until the 21st century when those same statistics started to become more prominent. Until that point in time, only keeping the score on goals was seen as something worth mentioning. That kind of way of looking at football has changed.
Statistics are being used as a tool to predict football games or entire championship tournaments just like with any sport that uses statistics. Even though statistics are useful and they are solid data that helps people avoid guesswork, they are still open to interpretation – a player having fewer passes than their teammate may seem like the player did not offer much to the game, but if taken into account that the player only played as a substitute in the last 20 minutes of the game, that changes everything.
The use of statistics in football can help identify the strengths and weaknesses of a team which can help in further predictions within the game itself. But as mentioned, the statistics also don't provide context for a certain game and can therefore be misleading.
Stats that matter the most
As previously mentioned, statistics can be useful, yet misleading. However, some numbers are more helpful than others when it comes to predicting the result of a game. After all, there have been analyses of games that have lead to the use of probability distributions such as the Poisson distribution. Simply put, a Poisson distribution helps to predict the probability of certain events from happening in a situation in which you know how often the event has occurred.
One of the factors that can significantly influence a game is the current form of the teams that are playing. A rich history of a certain team can be very helpful when it comes to recognizing its importance and value over the years. However, when it comes to predicting a certain result in a game, it is better to look back at more recent games. They can be the key considering they show the overall form of a team over a short time before an upcoming match.
Another factor that sometimes gets overlooked is home advantage. It is no surprise that certain matches have a significantly different feeling depending on the field on which they are played and that is no coincidence. When a team is playing on familiar ground, it helps to improve their performance given the fact that the team knows the ins and outs of a field. Usually, this advantage is also accompanied by the home crowd cheering the team on, which can also be a benefit for the home team.
Combined with the current form of a team and home advantage are the home and away records. They also indicate how the team has performed in those given circumstances and if anything significantly changes when the teams play home or away games.
Injuries and suspensions play a crucial role when it comes to predicting a football game. If a team depends on certain players that are not currently available for a certain match, that can easily be a determining factor when it comes to figuring out the outcome of a game. That is especially true if the teamwork and team dynamics significantly shift because of the lack of certain players.
All these factors are used by the best prediction sites like foxdesi.com who hand out daily betting tips for football matches.
At the end of the day
Football, as previously mentioned, is an unpredictable game with a varied flow that changes from game to game. Using statistics can be useful, especially if a person wants to get to know more about a certain player or team. Information like that can be crucial and helpful when analyzing certain aspects of a particular game.
Football is a sport that uses skill, determination, hard work, and teamwork. All of that can be seen through numbers and statistics while watching a game and predicting a result. That's why it is important to know some stats before trying to predict a game.
However, football can also be very surprising. Teams that are considered underdogs in a game can win sometimes just by sheer luck or by having a great day. So while there is a science behind the stats, there is also a certain beauty in not knowing all the results before the game is finished.
That is probably why football is considered to this day “the beautiful game”.
