1. League Position, Wage Expenditure and Goal Percentage Based on Set-Pieces Analysis of English Premier League Clubs
- Author
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Avishek Mitra, Nayana Nimkar, Nikunj Shah
- Subjects
Football, English Premier League, Set-piece Goals, Correlation, Club Wages ,Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity ,QC770-798 - Abstract
This study aimed to understand the relationship between an English Premier League club’s league position, average annual player wage bill and their dependence on set-pieces for goals. The relationships between these variables were studied in this research paper using Spearman’s rank correlation. The data was collected from the 2018-19 and 2019-20 English Premier League seasons from the official Premier League website, for the 20 clubs playing in the league for each corresponding season. A total of 760 matches were watched and analysed over the two seasons. The results showed that (1) there exists a significant moderate negative correlation (⍴ = -0.542 for 2018-19 and ⍴ = -0.516 for 2019-20) between a team’s final league position and their percentage of set-piece goals, and (2) a moderate negative correlation (⍴ = -0.493 for 2018-19 and ⍴ = -0.475 for 2019-20) between a team’s average weekly player wages and their percentage of set-piece goals. A high positive correlation (⍴ = 0.866 for 2018-19 and ⍴ = 0.733 for 2019-20) was also found between a club’s league position and its player wage expenditure which reinforces previous findings. This implies that teams lower in the league table tend to be more reliant on set-pieces to score goals. Similarly, teams with a lower average weekly player wage tend to be more dependent on set-pieces to score goals. Teams higher in the league table or with a greater wage bill do not necessarily score fewer goals via set-pieces but tend to score more goals from open play than lower opposition, which is why their percentage of goals scored via set-pieces is less. These results could impact managers’ tactics before games, a club’s recruitment strategies as well as the football betting industry.
- Published
- 2024