Performance vs. Salaries per Player – Premier League

Article originally published at www.totalfootballanalysis.com.

We start publishing today a set of articles that examine the relationship between sporting performance and the average annual salaries paid per player by clubs from the “Big-5” (Barclays Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A). We will start by the state-of-the-art Barclays Premier League.

First, we will look at each season between 2016/2017 and 2019/2020 (until matchday 29) to analyze which clubs achieved better results between these variables. Then, we will examine the 14 clubs that remained on the Premier League during these seasons and how they performed compared with how much they paid on average per player.

2016/2017

In the edition of 2016/2017 of the Barclays Premier League, Chelsea won the competition presenting the 3rd highest annual average salary per player.

From a positive perspective, Bournemouth achieved the 9th position in the competition with only the 19th highest salary value. In the opposite perspective, Sunderland was the case with less success finishing in the last place with the 13th highest average annual salary per player.

Only Hull City presented the same position in the salaries ranking as it did in the competition.

2017/2018

In the following season, Manchester City was crowned champion with the 2nd highest annual average salary per player.

Burnley was the surprise achieving the 7th position in the league with only the 18th highest salary value. On the opposite side, West Bromwich was the case with less success finishing in the last place with the 12th highest average annual salary per player.

Crystal Palace, Everton, and Leicester presented the same position in the salaries ranking as they did in the competition.

2018/2019

In the last edition of the Barclays Premier League, Manchester City won once more the competition presenting the 2nd highest annual average salary per player.

From a positive perspective, Wolverhampton achieved the 7th position in the competition with the 14th highest salary value. In the opposite perspective, Manchester United and Southampton were the cases with less success finishing in 6th and 16th place with the 1st and 11th highest average annual salaries per player.

Only Chelsea and Arsenal presented the same position in the salaries ranking as they did in the Premier League.

2019/2020

With 29 matches played, Liverpool is very close to being crowned champions with the 3rd highest annual average salary per player of the league.

On the positive side, Sheffield United is performing incredibly well in the 6th position in the competition with the lowest salary value. In the opposite perspective, West Ham is, until now, the case with less success occupying the 16th place with the 9th highest average annual salaries per player.

Only Newcastle has, so far, presented the same position in the salaries ranking as they did in the Premier League.

2016/2017 to 2019/2020 – Which club profits more from the players’ salaries

Finally, we analyzed the performance and salaries of the 14 clubs that took part in the Barclays Premier League between 2016/2017 and 2019/2020.

The two giants from Manchester are the clubs with a higher average annual salary per player. Burnley, with recent brilliant campaigns, is the club with more success when comparing sporting performance and salaries since, on average, it achieved the 12th place with only the 18th highest average amount per player.

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Clubs that take more advantage of Ball Possession

Goals are Football’s life, we all know it. In addition to the spectacle it provides, it allows clubs to accumulate points to achieve their goals, sporting or financial.

Depending on their involvement, the squads they have, their game culture, the success of their sporting and business strategies and the challenges caused by opponents, they present different volumes of scored goals and, in specific cases, score less than others but manage to obtain a significant number of points allowing them to achieve comfort throughout the seasons.

Each club adapts its strategy to its objectives and constraints and ends up adopting different game models that converge in greater or lesser percentages of ball possession.

Football Industry analyzed this issue verifying the performance of 73 clubs that remained in the main divisions of Germany, Spain, France, England, Italy, and Portugal between the seasons 2014/2015 and 2018/2019.

Thus, we present below the ranking of the teams that have the best relationship between ball possession and goals scored, namely, reaching a greater number of goals with a lower percentage of ball possession.

 

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UEFA Champions League per capita

UEFA Champions League, since taking on this designation in 1992/1993, has had 27 editions. In this period, 13 clubs won it from 7 different countries. The main highlight goes to the Spanish giants Real Madrid CF and FC Barcelona with a total of 11 UCL titles (41%) that makes Spain the country with the most UCL victories since 1992/1993.

Only twice UCL has not been won by a club from the countries called “Big-5”: in 1994/1995 by AFC Ajax (Netherlands) and in 2003/2004 by FC Porto (Portugal).

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In theory, countries with a larger population combined with quality professionals and infrastructures will tend to present sports institutions more capable of achieving important titles, as is the case, for example, of Germany. However, several factors must be considered in order to draw valid conclusions. One of them concerns the volume of the country’s population. In this regard, Spain and Portugal are the ones that present the best ratio when comparing the number of UCL titles with the population volume.

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Scored Goals Profitability

In a difficult time for Football when some championships were canceled and others will soon be resumed with restrictions, Football Industry returns with new articles.

Goals are Football’s life, we all know it. In addition to the spectacle it provides, it allows clubs to accumulate points to achieve their goals, sporting or financial.

Depending on their involvement, the squads they have, their game culture, the success of their sporting and business strategies and the challenges caused by opponents, they present different volumes of scored goals and, in specific cases, score less than others but manage to obtain a significant number of points allowing them to achieve comfort throughout the seasons.

Football Industry analyzed this issue verifying the performance of 73 clubs that remained in the main divisions of Germany, Spain, France, England, Italy, and Portugal between the seasons 14/15 and 18/19.

At first sight, based on the clubs and period mentioned above, Liga NOS and Ligue 1 are the championships with the highest profitability of scored goals (each scored goal represents, on average, 1.10 obtained points) followed by Liga Santander and Serie A with 1.04, Premier League with 1.02 and Bundesliga with 0.95.

These results are mainly related with the lower average number of goals scored by Portuguese and French clubs in contrast to other championships, compared to the number of points that are obtained at the end of the season. Thus, as an example, in the last 5 seasons, on average, Portuguese clubs reached 47 points scoring 44 goals, while in Germany, clubs needed to score 49 goals to achieve 47 points.

Other data can also be analyzed to further define this reality, namely, the average number of shots per game and conversion rate (percentage of shots turned into goals). In this scope, considering seasons 16/17, 17/18, and 18/19, Liga NOS has the lowest average number of shots per game, the same as Liga Santander (12.1), with Serie A having the highest value (13.4). However, Liga NOS has the highest conversion rate (11.5%) followed by Bundesliga (11.4%). Nevertheless, it is important to note that when we remove SL Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting CP from the analysis, both the number of shots per game and the conversion rate decrease to 11.3 and 9.9%, respectively.

A relationship between the points earned and conversion rates of the 73 clubs analyzed between 14/15 and 18/19, allows the observation of clubs global behavior, followed by its individual analysis compared to a prediction of its performance.

Thus, we present below a ranking of the 73 clubs according to their ability to turn their scored goals into points. We found that clubs like Nantes, Atlético de Madrid, and Juventus achieved a better average number of points than expected due to the conversion rate they showed and the relationship shown in the graph above.

Nantes:

  • Average number of points between 14/15 and 18/19: 49
  • Average conversion rate between 14/15 and 18/19: 7.9%
  • Expected average number of points between 14/15 and 18/19: 42
  • Result: 7 points higher than expected

Atlético de Madrid:

  • Average number of points between 14/15 and 18/19: 80
  • Average conversion rate between 14/15 and 18/19: 13.8%
  • Expected average number of points between 14/15 and 18/19: 72
  • Result: 8 points higher than expected

Juventus:

  • Average number of points between 14/15 and 18/19: 91
  • Average conversion rate between 14/15 and 18/19: 12.9%
  • Expected average number of points between 14/15 and 18/19: 67
  • Result: 24 points higher than expected
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