Basic statistics
Football is the most wide-spread sport all over the world. But the team of azBookmakers make one major distinction known for most of you. “Football” in America and Europa are two completely different games.
In America, the existence of organizations like NCAA and different high school and college organizations facilitate the development of the sport and its ranking as one of the most popular in the country.
Anyway, in the following article, we will pay attention to the “soccer”, the European football and what sort of stats to look at in order to gain proper predicting skills:
- the current form of both teams – it is definitely the most important factor of all. The current form talks much about their current condition and its ability to oppose. The best scenario is to find one in a good winning form and bet against a another in a bad losing form. Just be aware that the current form is a temporal figure. It never lasts forever whether it is a winning or a losing one;
- statistics from direct clashes between teams – it is another major indicator. You can find it as well like “H2H stats”. It is especially useful and could play a key role in your predicting process if the clashes took place not a long time ago. For instance, if Celtic won twice against Rangers in 2002 and since then they did not play against each other, then the statistics here is useless at all;
- the average hits for a team – this indicator has to deal with the average number of shots each of them performs per match. It is important to distinguish the shots on target and those off-target. If they hit 20 shots in total per match but only 3 of them are performed on a target, then you should put on doubt the ability of the attack’s efficiency. It is much more essential to follow only the shots on target. Even though a team with 10 or more shots on target fails to win a match, they are likely to interrupt the losing form and get back to the winning road;
- the average number of expected goals – it is useful stats in football, especially if you are keen on betting on OVER/UNDER or Both Teams to Score YES/NO betting sections. There are many sites for football statistics which will provide you with plenty of information about all championships;
- how many goals do they have on average – another indicator of significant importance. It could be once again used on behalf of bettors who prefer to predict alternative selections like OVER/UNDER and Both Teams to Score YES/NO selections.
Statistics to avoid
- possession of the ball – it is statistics that reflect a particular strategy and approach in football. Teams that own high ball possession not always win. Barcelona is the perfect example – they own possession of over 70% in their matches but as you know their current form is poor. There are teams that prefer to play on counter-attacks. The latter requires low ball-possession and fast wings and backs. Wolverhampton finished 6th in English Premier League as their manager applies low-possession football;
- corners – in fact, corners reflect the motivation of a team to score a goal but actually it is useless to search for corners stats and bet on it;
- the individual qualities of the players – it is important to have a squad with qualitative players but that is not a major factor. For instance, West Ham spend almost 150 million EUR for new transfers last summer and in the end, they were struggling to keep their place in the Premier League.
