Data shows Scotland, England and Serbia topped the Euro 2024 boredom rankings

Paul Kemp Jul 17, 2024

Euro 2024 has just concluded, with Spain defeating England 2:1 in the final, winning its 4th continental trophy in history. Many fans and pundits had divided opinion on the Three Lions, whether they were worthy of being finalists, given their unattractive style of football, ultimately leading to Gareth Southgate stepping down from the position. On the other hand, the opinion that Spain offered the most attractive football was almost unanimous. Now, 3 days after the last game has been played, Sportingpedia unveils the exact reasons why the Three Lions players and manager are critiqued despite reaching the final. We investigated the period of ball possession each team at Euro 2024 had before attempting a shot and how many passes had to be completed in the attack’s build-up before shooting. The numbers show that England is behind only Scotland when it comes to the time of possession needed to produce a shot with 5 minutes and 29 seconds. On top of that, the English players have made 51.2 passes on average before each shot, which puts them in 3rd place in that separate ranking, behind Scotland and Serbia.

Methodology: We extracted data for various statistical categories from UEFA.com. For “time of possession” we used the percentage shown which is average for all the team’s matches and then multiplied it by 90 (the minutes of the encounter), and the number of games played. For each team who played extra-time we added 30 or 60 for England respectively. Then we divided the number of shots to the minutes of possession and completed passes to come up with an average number for every participating team.

Key Takeaways:

• Scotland’s players have been most hesitant to shoot, attempting a shot every 7 minutes and 49 seconds of ball possession, followed by England’s 5:29
• Czech Republic had adopted the most direct playing style, shooting every 2 minutes and 36 seconds when having the ball, needing just over 18 passes to do so
• The trio of Scotland, Serbia, and England have used the highest number of passes in their attacking build-up before taking a shot – each over 50

England was the team needing the 2nd longest period of ball possession before attempting a shot at 5 minutes and 29 seconds, behind only Scotland’s 7 minutes and 49 seconds. The only other side shooting after holding the ball for over 5 minutes was Serbia. If it was not for Jude Bellingham’s brilliant goal against Slovenia, the Three Lions would have crashed at the round of last-16. It comes to show that the only difference between them compared to Serbia and Scotland was that the English players have superior individual qualities, but when considering from a team’s perspective, they were not that different.

Georgia, Italy, and Slovakia form the group of teams needing between 4 minutes and 4 minutes and 30 seconds to finish the attack with a shot. Each of them came out of their respective groups, but they all were eliminated in the first knock-out game.

No drastic differences are evident all the way down to the Czech Republic as they were the only team at Euro 2024 to attempt a shot before having 3 minutes of ball possession. The Czechs held the ball for an average of 2 minutes and 36 seconds prior to shooting, but the end result shows that there has not been that much need of rushing, as they finished last in Group D, earning just one point. We find all semi-finalists besides England – Spain, France and the Netherlands clocking up between 3:04 and 3:33 minutes of ball possession before shooting.

The picture is very much the same when we look at the number of passes each team made before attempting a shot. Again, Scotland, Serbia, and England are at the top, with the slight difference that the Three Lions are replaced by the Serbs in 2nd place. Each of the three teams registered over 50 passes prior to shooting. Italy is the only other team nearing the aforementioned three, having made an average of 49 passes before producing a shot. What all four of these sides have in common is that neither of their supporters were happy with the playing style.

There is a drastic gap until the next team in the ranking – Denmark, who has registered 37.4 passes before a shot. From the Red Dynamite all the way down to Poland, the differences are small, but we see that all semi-finalists beside England have needed less than 32 passes to shoot, with the Netherlands registering an average of 31.9, while France and Spain hold almost identical numbers of 29.9 and 30.1.

Three teams have had a super direct approach but we can now boldly state that it was ineffective, as only Romania managed to go beyond the group stage of the tournament. Romania and Poland used 25 passes before shooting, while the Czech Republic needed sligthly over 18.

In conclusion, England’s style under Southgate, characterized by extensive possession and numerous passes before shooting, contrasted sharply with Spain’s efficient use of the ball. The tactical difference was key in Spain’s triumph and England’s failure. Despite England’s deep run, the statistics reveal the challenges in their approach, highlighting the need for a more dynamic and direct style in major tournaments.

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