The West Ham long ball debate got raised again after David Gold spoke on Ridge radio last week
An article on KUMB quoted Gold as saying:“We’re now being associated as a long ball team, implying that we hit more long balls than any other club in the Premier League – but that is absolutely not true, there is this perception but we have to be very careful. If we were in the bottom three then I’d say ok, we’ve really got to face up to this fact that we’re a long ball football club. However let me tell you this; Real Madrid, 2-0 down with ten minutes to go will launch the ball into the box. It’s human nature and it’s what happens. It’s just what you do when you’re running out of time, the ball starts getting launched. But equally, we must balance that by saying what a fantastic goal we scored against Tottenham where the ball never left the ground from the defence to hitting the back of the net.”
I decided to look at the statistics myself to gauge whether Mr Gold’s assertions stack up. The table below is compiled from Opta statistics for this season up to and including our away game against West Bromwich Albion.
The ‘long ball theory’ was first discussed by a retired RAF Wing Commander Charles Reep in the 1950s in England. Reep was an amateur statistician and analyzed not only the number of passes that led to a goal, but also the field positions where those passes originated. The definition of a long ball is an attempt to move the ball 25 metres or more down the field via a cross.
The table below shows Manchester United have played the most long balls this season followed by Southampton. West Ham come 12th out of twenty Premier league clubs with 1966. I know many will argue it is not about long ball statistics in isolation so I have added the accuracy of those long balls, the average possession this season and the win rate as all being additional factors which to the entertainment factor.
