The FIFA and the IFAB, through Arsene Wenger, have decided to monitor a new offside rule that would change the game, as it has always done every time the regulations have been changed, the most important treaty of all. The Frenchman, Director of Football Development, proposes to end offside calls by mere millimeters, suggesting that any part of the body except one could be offside, anticipating that this will help improve the spectacle.
While pilot tests are ongoing, on a day-to-day basis we continue with a rule born in 1925, which, as it could not be otherwise, changed the game forever. A revolution that will turn a century old if the new rule does not prevent it and is established before its centenary. Like any statistic or metric, we can always glean insights from the data. This time we will visualize which teams and players fall offside more often.
Measuring only data in their respective leagues, Atlético de Madrid is the team that has been offside the most, with 91 times, an average of 3.3 times per game, far from the 74 times Mallorca has been caught offside. As with tactical fouls, the text we produced together with MARCA last week, 7 of the top 10 in this category belong to LaLiga, probably the league that follows the fewest patterns and coincides with the other four major leagues.
The collective section is closely related to the individual. The forward who has been offside the most in the five major European leagues is Spanish Álvaro Morata, followed by Umar Sadiq and Cyle Larin. 19 of the top 50 forwards belong to LaLiga. Although not appearing on the graph, Erling Haaland has only been caught offside once throughout the season.
Offside is much more than mere chance. This rule changed the game and, therefore, the behavior of forwards, to whom we must attribute the ability or the defect of knowing how to move within that boundary and modify movements to remain onside, even more so when VAR technology, which is influencing these movements significantly, completely invalidates any millimeter offside. Technology changes reality, and players must adapt to it.
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