The saying that applies to the world of sport of ‘The best defense is a good attack’ seems to have become obsolete these days.
Have the glorious times of catenaccio returned? Based on the classifications we see in the major European leagues It can be concluded that defending well translates into joy and leadership. You only have to glimpse a devastating statistic consisting of four of the five leaders of the major European leagues are the team with the least goals scored of their competition.
The only League that does not comply with this rule is the French Ligue 1 with a Paris Saint Germain leads the standings, but is the second team that concedes the fewest goals. The alternative to the title and second place, Nice, improves the defensive figures of the capital team, which concedes 0.82 goals per game. While the Provençals barely concede 0.53 goals.
In the rest of the major European leagues, the trend indicates that the leader is the best defensive team in the competition. In contrast, only Inter from Serie A is the only one that captains the category of top scorer on the list of leaders in European competitions while also being the one with the fewest goals scored. The Nerazzurri are dominating their competition with an iron fist, averaging 3 goals per game and conceding just 0.44 goals.
The Italian team has historic defensive records, the same as a Real Madrid had not achieved these defensive figures since the 1964/65 season. The white team barely concedes 0.61 goals per game, this figure being the best in the Spanish league, conceding almost half as many goals as its two closest pursuers, Girona and Barcelona, who average 1.16 goals conceded.
The ‘marchy’ league
In the Premier League, we find the busiest league in terms of not defending. Liverpool leads the table with an average of goals conceded of 0.84, this being the worst average among the major European leagues. Candidates for the title such as Manchester City or Aston Villa They are well above one goal conceded per game, with Arsenal being the only one below this psychological barrier. Precisely, the ‘Gunners’ are today the main alternative to the dominance of the ‘Reds’ at the top of the table.
For its part, the Bundesliga has left us in this first round as surprising leader to a Bayer Leverkusen which has cemented its status above Bayern Munich thanks to its defense. The aspirin team concedes 0.75 goals per game, while the Bavarians concede one goal per game. The Allianz Arena team, however, maintains an insulting scoring average of 3.4 goals per game, being the highest among the candidates to win league titles.
Furthermore, this trend It is repeated in smaller leagues such as the Portuguese Primeira Liga, the Dutch Eredivisie or the Greek Super League., where their leaders are the teams with the fewest goals. In this sense, PSV is having the perfect season with 16 wins in 16 games where the most incredible thing is that those from Eindhoven have conceded only 6 goals with a spectacular average of 0.37.