TA: The total number of goals scored in the Premier League has dropped significantly this season, and there are more and more set pieces and powerful throw-ins.

October 16th, TA wrote an article stating that this season’s Premier League has seen a “retro trend”, and the data clearly points to the game returning to the more direct, more consumptive, but less entertaining style of the first decade of the 21st century. The total number of goals in the game has dropped significantly, especially from open play, while set pieces, long throw-ins and various interruptions have dominated.

The most core data is the net time of the game. Although the average length of Premier League games this season has reached 100 minutes and 35 seconds, the net game time is only 55 minutes. This means that when fans watch the game at any time, the probability of the ball being in motion is only 54.7%, and an average of 45 minutes and 35 seconds per game is lost due to various interruptions.

This increase in disruption is closely related to the shift in tactical trends. This season, the strong throw-in tactic has made a comeback, and the proportion of throw-ins thrown into the penalty area in the offensive third has soared from 6% two or three years ago to an astonishing 27% or more. Taking Brentford as an example, they are not only the top users of long throw-ins, but their average time for throwing all throw-ins is as long as 25.4 seconds. In their win over Manchester United, they spent 14 minutes and 25 seconds just waiting for the throw-in to be restarted.

At the same time, the importance of set pieces has been raised to an unprecedented height. Goals from corners, free kicks and throw-ins have risen to 0.7 per game, the highest level since the 2010-11 season. In order to pursue set-piece efficiency, the team spends a lot of time. Sunderland takes an average of 49.5 seconds to take each corner kick, and Arsenal also takes 45.4 seconds.

Corresponding to this is the malaise in mobile warfare. The number of goals scored in sports games this season has dropped to 1.69 per game, the lowest since the 2008-09 season. The overall passing data also confirms this: the number of passes per game dropped to 858, which is also the lowest level since the 2010-11 season. Even Guardiola's Manchester City has seen its average number of passes per game drop sharply from 688 in the 2017-18 season to 496 this season.

Throw-in expert coach Thomas Gronemark, who has worked with Liverpool for five years, revealed that Klopp believed at the time that excessive use of long throw-ins would interrupt the team's fast and smooth offensive style and have limited positive impact on the game. Today, however, the trend is exactly the opposite.

While some critics, such as Evra, who calls Guardiola's football "robot football," may welcome the change, the data suggests that the flow and entertainment of the game is being compromised.