A Statistical View of Serie A

By: Francesco | December 11th, 2008

I know statistics are big mostly in American sports. You’ll turn on Sportscenter and here a random sportscaster be like “This player has a 65.7893034% shooting percentage, better than the average of the league which is 54.648484645!”. Usually American sports will find stats for anything, like the “second assist”. I mean come on, the second assist? There’s only one assist, the pass the leads to a goal. Actually the whole “assist” statistic wasn’t used in soccer until recently as well. I remember reading somewhere that World Cup 2006 was the first World Cup where assists were recorded officially. But then that leads us to Italy, where statistics aren’t big either. At the end of the giornata, you’ll see the standings, the goalscorers of each match, maybe yellow/red cards if your lucky, and the top scorer table. But it seems that the Lega Calcio has decided (with the help from Panini, famous for their sticker albums) to keep track of statistics for Serie A. Some stats after the jump.

Panini divides the single player statistics in 4 sections: Balls won, Completed Passes, Assists (which does not have to lead to a goal, it’s any pass that leads to a shot on goal), and shots.

So right now, in Serie A, here are the statistical leaders in each category.

BALLS WON

Daniele Portanova (Siena): 343
Moris Carrozzieri (Palermo): 327
Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus): 318
Bruno Cirillo (Reggina): 308
Christian Ledesma (Lazio): 301
Paolo Bianco (Calgiari): 297
Mario Yepes (Chievo): 297

So, some surprising names, no big name defenders besides Chiellini. You can make the point that since the smaller team’s defenders are put under more pressure by stronger teams, they have more work to do and therefore win more balls. But that’s just my hypothesis.

COMPLETED PASSES

Gaetano D’Agostino (Udinese): 740
Clarence Seedorf (Milan): 723
Fabio Liverani (Palermo): 712
Daniele De Rossi (Roma): 641
Federico Balzaretti (Palermo): 633
Maicon (Inter): 613
Grygor Garics (Atalanta): 606

D’Agostino at the top is no surprise, almost all of Udinese’s play goes through him. Seedorf spent time as Milan’s regista while Pirlo was out so him at second place makes sense. Fabio Liverani is another one that gets most of the workload in midfield for Palermo. De Rossi is an obvious contender as well. The surprising names are fullbacks Balzaretti and Garics, while Maicon isn’t as much as a surprise.

ASSISTS (any pass that leads to a shot on goal)

Gaetano D’Agostino (Udinese): 35
Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria): 34
Cristiano Doni (Atalanta): 29
Daniele De Rossi (Roma): 28
Fabio Simplicio (Palermo): 28
Michele Fini (Cagliari): 28
Ronaldinho (Milan): 28

D’Agostino proves to be the best assist man in Serie A so far, while Antonio Cassano is close behind. Doni creates chances for Atalanta, while Simplicio, Fini, and Ronaldhino are all trequartisti so creating chances is their job. De Rossi creates lots of chances with his superb passing.

SHOTS

Mauro Zarate (Lazio): 68
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter): 64
Fabrizio Miccoli (Palermo): 61
Diego Milito (Genoa): 54
Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus): 52
Kaka (Milan): 48
Edinson Cavani (Palermo): 42

Zarate has taken the most shots so far, but Miccoli and Ibra are in close pursuit. Everyone listed is pretty much the main striker of their respective team so it makes sense.

Then there are the Team Statistics. There is: Ball Possession, Shots on goal (must be a goal, a post/crossbar, a save by the keeper, or blocked off the line by a defender), Balls played (which in their definition means: how many single players touch the ball on a single possession), Percentage of Completed Passes, Territorial Supremacy (ball possession in the opposition’s half), and Percentage of Danger to an opposing team (basically which team has the most threatening attack)

BALL POSSESSION

1) Milan – average of 27 minutes, 25 seconds
2) Inter – average of 26 minutes, 53 seconds
3) Roma – average of 26 minutes, 44 seconds
the rest- 4) Atalanta, 5) Udinese, 6) Juventus, 7) Palermo, 8) Lazio, 9) Fiorentina, 10) Cagliari, 11) Torino, 12) Genoa, 13) Sampdoria, 14) Napoli, 15) Siena, 16) Bologna, 17) Chievo, 18) Reggina, 19) Catania, 20) Lecce

So Napoli, despite being high up the table, don’t hold the ball as much as teams lower than them in the standings. Torino, who are struggling, hold the ball more than teams above them in the standings. Catania second to last is surprising as well.

SHOTS ON GOAL

1) Lazio – average of 6.5 shots on goal per game
2) Fiorentina – average of 6.2 shots on goal per game
3) Milan – average of 6.1 shots on goal per game
4) Roma – average of 5.9 shots on goal per game
the rest- 5) Inter, 6) Juventus and Udinese, 7) Cagliari, Genoa, and Palermo, 8) Napoli, 9) Atalanta, Siena, and Torino, 10) Sampdoria, 11) Catania, 12) Reggina, 13) Chievo and Lecce, 14) Bologna

BALLS PLAYED

1) Milan – 611.2
2) Roma – 587.3
3) Inter and Juventus – 568.9
the rest- 4) Atalanta, 5) Palermo, 6) Udinese, 7) Lazio, 8) Genoa, 9) Fiorentina, 10) Torino, 11) Siena, 12) Chievo, 13) Sampdoria, 14) Cagliari, 15) Bologna, 16) Reggina, 17) Napoli, 18) Catania, 19) Lecce

PERCENTAGE OF PASSES COMPLETED

1) Milan – 68.4%
2) Roma – 66.2%
3) Inter – 65.4%
4) Atalanta – 64.1%
the rest- 5) Udinese, 6) Genoa, 7) Palermo, 8) Lazio, 9) Juventus, 10) Fiorentina, 11) Sampdoria, 12) Napoli, 13) Torino, 14) Bologna, 15) Reggina, 16) Siena, 17) Chievo, 18) Cagliari, 19) Catania, 20) Lecce

TERRITORIAL SUPREMACY

1) Milan – average of 12 minutes, 46 seconds
2) Inter – average of 11 minutes, 46 seconds
3) Roma – average of 10 minutes, 46 seconds
4) Atalanta – average of 10 minutes, 32 seconds
the rest- 5) Juventus, 6) Fiorentina, 7) Lazio, 8) Palermo, 9) Genoa, 10) Udinese, 11) Siena, 13) Sampdoria, 14) Torino, 15) Cagliari, 16) Napoli, 17) Chievo, 18) Reggina, 19) Bologna, 20) Lecce

PERCENTAGE OF DANGER TO AN OPPOSING TEAM

1) Milan – 55.1%
2) Inter – 54.9%
3) Lazio – 52.6%
4) Roma – 52.3%
the rest- 5) Fiorentina, 6) Juventus, 7) Udinese, 8) Palermo, 9) Genoa, 10) Atalanta, 11) Napoli, 12) Torino, 13) Cagliari, 14) Sampdoria, 15) Siena, 16) Catania, 17) Reggina, 18) Bologna, 19) Lecce, 20) Chievo

———————————
So looking at all these stats, Milan should be the best team in Serie A (but as the results show, they are not). Lecce are statistically the worst team in Serie A. Napoli, even though they get results and are in the top spots in the table, aren’t very good statistically.

All in all, it’s the results that matter. If you don’t get results, you won’t get points, no matter how good you are statistically.