Serie A: Europe's Tightest League?

Last weekend saw Serie A live up to the stereotype of old, with an incredible twelve teams failing to find the net over the round of ten fixtures. Half of the matches finished goalless and with 49 yellow cards in addition to 4 players seeing red, Italy’s top division is proving to be a hard-fought league after six rounds of matches.

Indeed, a look at the Serie A table shows just how tight matters are; 9th-placed Parma are just three points off the top, with even second-bottom Lecce, along with beleaguered Inter, only 8 points adrift of the league leaders. WhoScored looks at the statistics to ascertain why goals have been so hard to come by in a tight start to the Italian domestic season.

League Leaders Stats

A look at the leaders of each of the five main leagues across Europe highlights how open the Premier League is in comparison- Man City have dropped just two points so far, averaging 21 shots per game. They also concede 11 shots per game, meaning an average of 32 shots at both ends of the pitch when they take to the field- indicative of an open, entertaining game, then.

Bayern and Barcelona have the joint-best defensive record in terms of conceding shots- just 6 apiece, though Juventus closely follow on 7. Bayern’s defensive record is incredible, though; just 1 goal conceded all season in the Bundesliga so far.

PSG, currently three points ahead of the chasing pack in Ligue 1, score more than one goal per game than they concede, though only manage one more goal attempt than their opponents (14 to 13). Barcelona’s clinical finishing stands out here- they average just 1 shot more per game than Juventus (16 to 15) but find the net 3.7 times on average, more than double the Serie A side’s 1.5. While Juve have conceded just 3 goals so far over six games, an average of 0.5, it’s clear their lowly shot conversion is preventing them from winning games- they have 3 wins and 3 draws so far.

Man City ship more on average, 0.7, but find the net 3.4 times per game; with 7 wins and 1 draw from their eight games, Roberto Mancini’s side have picked up 2.8 points per game, the most of our featured sides. Bayern and Barca’s dominance in their respective leagues is shown by their average of 2.4 points, while Juventus’ 2 points per game is the same as the likes of Newcastle –fourth in the Premier League- and Valencia, fifth in La Liga. For The Old Lady to be sitting at the top of Serie A with such a points return highlights just how hard-fought the league must be right now.

Possession Stats

A look at the average possession teams have in each of the five main leagues highlights how little real dominance of the ball there is in Serie A. While Juventus lead the way with 62% and Parma average just 40%, there are 12 teams that have between 46-54% of the ball on average per game- another example of a more evenly balanced league; only 3 teams have had 55% or more possession, with plenty of evenly-balanced matches as a result.

Barcelona lead La Liga with 74%, with Santander bottom on a lowly 32% but here, similar to the Premier League, there are six teams that stand out in terms of possession. Chelsea’s 60% to Stoke’s 41% is the biggest discrepancy in England’s top-flight.   

The Bundesliga also has just 3 teams with 55% possession or more- unsurprisingly, Bayern lead the way with 64% and Augsburg have the lowest ratio, just 39%, while Ligue 1 also has 12 teams between 46-54%; champions Lille have 59%, the most, with Dijon’s 38% the lowest tally.

Shots Conceded per Game

Why so few goals, then?  It’s clear there seems to be a distinct lack of goalmouth action this time round in Serie A. Analysis of the number of shots conceded per game in each league is particularly revealing; Italy’s top-flight has seen as many as eleven clubs concede, for example, 12 shots or less per game over the six rounds of fixtures to date.

Compare this to the Premier League- only 4 clubs have managed to concede 12 shots or less per game, with Man United’s 18 the most. Perhaps it’s no coincidence, then, there were just 2 clean sheets in England’s main league in the weekend gone by- it’s a far more adventurous division and shooting opportunities and, resultantly, goals are therefore easier to come by.

Similarly, the Bundesliga has just 5 teams this tally applies to- it’s highlighted in the fact that nine teams scored 2 or more goals last weekend, compared to just 5 teams in Italy.  The pattern continues in Spain and France, though not quite to the same extent; 9 and 10 clubs respectively have conceded 12 shots or less on average.

Clearly, Italy’s top-flight is proving to have a stubborn resistance when it comes to finding the net- they’re not firing off the shots with the same sort of consistency as other leagues. Overall, a combination of all the above instances offers plenty of explanation as to just why Serie A is proving so difficult for any side to dominate thus far, six rounds of fixtures into the new season.