Lack of goals in La Liga

A statistical analysis of the fall in goals scored in the last years.
Is La Liga's game also in crisis?
No, this article isn't another one about La Liga being a dull two-horse race - it is a look
beyond that. Barca-Madrid fight aside, the Spanish league has usually showed good
games and nice battles between the teams of the so-called "the other league" in the
recent years. However, last game week, after four 0-0 draws (reaching a total tally of 16
games without goals after only 11 league rounds), some sections of the Spanish media
began to show their concern about the lack of goals scored this season. But let's take a
look at the numbers. Is the situation actually worrying?
Goals after 11 games
The truth is that the number
of goals scored has
320
decreased in the last three
310
years over a 10%. Stats are
300
usually cold and need
290
interpretation, but in this case
280
they show why we, the fans,
270
311
have the feeling that there has
297
260
288
286
been a drop in the quality of
279
250
263
the games this season. After
240
all, football is about the goals.
230
Last season, after 11 matches,
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
the goals tally was that of
Season
286. This season, after the
same number of games
played, we have 279. Almost the same amount, right? Well, the problem comes when
we take a look at the number of goals scored by Barcelona and Real Madrid. Last
season they scored together in the first 11 matches 53 goals (18.5% of the total),
and this season 73 (26% of the total).
That leaves us with fewer goals scored between the smaller teams and a big quantity of
games that end up goalless or with a 1-0 or 0-1. In fact, to find a season with so many
0-0s (16 this season) and 1-0s / 0-1s (25 this season) after 11 games, we have to go
back to 2006, the times
where defensive football,
Low-scoring matches
due to Greece and Italy's
success in the international
2011-12
16
25
scenario, was preferred over
2010-11
9
19
the current attacking
football that most of the
0-0s after 11 gam es
n 2009-10
8
19
o
teams in La Liga try to
s
a
e
1-0s + 0-1s after 11
implement. In the 2006-07
S 2008-09
9
23
gam es
season, there were 12
2007-08
9
15
goalless draws and 22 one-
goal-to-nil wins at this stage
2006-07
12
22
of the year. That season,
Capello's Real Madrid
0
20
40
60
triumphed over a Barcelona
No. of matches
who choked in the last part

---

of the league ending both teams tied with 76 points. A number of points that nowadays
you expect those big two to reach by April.
It's also worth-considering that Sevilla ended 3rd only 5 points behind them. In terms of
competitiveness that was a gem of a season, despite the average of goals per match at
the end of the league being that of 2.48 goals. In any case, a tally similar to the ones in
the Premier League (2.45) and the Serie A (2.55) that year. Now we're back to those
numbers. So far this season, the average of goals scored is 2.54, and if we don't take
into consideration the usual Barca and Madrid's thrashings, we get a poor average
of 2.19 goals scored in those games between the rest of the teams in the league. A
number that would keep away any football fan from watching La Liga. Can we expect a
significant rise from now on? Not really, if we look in the recent history.
Average of goals per match
3,5
3
2,83 2,9
2,5
2,64 2,69
2,7 2,71
2,6 2,74
2,48
2,54
2,39
2
1,5
1
0,5
0
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
Season
Ave/Match after 11 games
Ave/Match end of season
Obviously, these alarming numbers are not a matter of coincidence. Almost all the
teams in the league have financial troubles, some of them are in bankruptcy, and the
quality of the players isn't the same year after year. If we look at the last transfer
market, many teams had to sell their best players, some of them real good goalscorers,
in order to survive. Levante and Espanyol are the best examples, having to sell Felipe
Caicedo and Daniel Osvaldo to balance the accounts. Bigger teams aren't free of the
financial crisis either. We all know how Valencia have systematically sold David Villa,
David Silva and Juan Mata, or how Atletico, who brought names like Falcao, Arda
Turan or Diego this season, first had to sell world-class players like David de Gea or
Sergio Aguero, besides Diego Forlan. There are only two teams in the league that
can clearly improve their squads season after season, while the rest accept their roles
and try to get by after years of mismanagement. Of course, football, the game, suffers
the consequences.
And where does this leave La Liga in terms of spectacle (i.e. goals) compared to the
other top European leagues?

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Average of goals in Europe's Top-5
3,5
3
2,5
a
t
c
h
Spain
2
England
e
r

m
Italy
1,5
a
l
s

p
Germany
o
G
1
France
0,5
0
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
Season
Season
Spain
England
Italy
Germany
France
2006-07
2,48
2,45
2,55
2,74
2,25
2007-08
2,69
2,64
2,55
2,81
2,28
2008-09
2,90
2,48
2,60
2,92
2,26
2009-10
2,71
2,77
2,61
2,83
2,41
2010-11
2,74
2,80
2,51
2,92
2,34
2011-12
2,54
2,99
2,44
2,91
2,58
La Liga is, along with Serie A, the only league that is suffering a significant drop in
their average of goals scored per match in the last years. Recently, Spanish newspapers
MARCA published a report about the crisis of Italian football, talking about low scores
and low attendances. Spain isn't far from that. However, as long as Barcelona and Real
Madrid keep getting good results national and internationally, most of the people won't
be able to see the wood for the trees. Nowadays, watching a game of "the other
league" in Spain is starting to become a pain more than a pleasure, with almost a 40%
of possibilities that the match ends with only one goal scored or none at all. Spanish
football is hugely affected by the financial crisis, and the game, progressively, too.

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