Fouls committed by Team/Opposition (1 Viewer)

Esoterica said:

After some discussion on the Goal margins/Goalscoring thread regarding the apparent lack of 'taking a yellow for the team', fouls in general and also with Robins saying he wants to add more experience/increase the squad age, I thought I'd pull up some of the fouls stats for the season. Having seen the 'fouls committed' numbers, it does lend some weight to the consensus that we're a bit too nice - we have conceded the least fouls in the division by some distance. Given how poor we've been at defending set pieces, maybe this is also partially a tactical decision.

In terms of fouls against us we're 8th highest, perhaps an indication of our flair players and speed on the counter attack.

One non-Cov related point that jumped out at me was the discrepancy between 'Fouls committed by the opposition' for Luton (721) and Barnsley (441). They are polar opposites in the table with a differential of 280 free kicks over the season, which for the teams that are 1st and 2nd seems extraordinary to me. Not sure whether it's the respective styles of play or teams going up against Luton in 1st and fearful of the amount of goals they score trying to kick them off the park? Would welcome thoughts on that.
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joemercersaces said:

Do you know what, I’m happy with that. Yes we could be much more cynical but I’m not sure I want to see us cheat to win. They’re a young team and doing pretty well playing with a degree of honesty that’s actually refreshing. I want us to go up next season by taking teams apart with skill and pace. I don’t think we were that far away this year because winning breeds confidence which in turn begets skill and assurance. One or two bits of good fortune in front of goal at key moments could have made a huge difference.

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Esoterica said:

Perhaps it's the type of foul then rather than the quantity itself. I think that it's a very circumstantial subject so there's no categoric right or wrong and that's where experience and game awareness comes into play i.e. knowing when and where to foul to gain an advantage e.g. in order to gain the time to reset the shape and formation. Of course no-one wants to be conceding free kicks in their own final 3rd ever (something I'm pleased Mason seems to have stopped doing, which I thought he was susceptible to when he first came into the side). However if Shipley bundles over Oviedo on the half way line against Sunderland instead of jogging back with him, it's an innocuous half way line foul that would have prevented a goal. Now I'm not picking on Shipley specifically, it was just a recent example that sprang to mind of the type of scenario I feel we miss a little.

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Esoterica said:

After some discussion on the Goal margins/Goalscoring thread regarding the apparent lack of 'taking a yellow for the team', fouls in general and also with Robins saying he wants to add more experience/increase the squad age, I thought I'd pull up some of the fouls stats for the season. Having seen the 'fouls committed' numbers, it does lend some weight to the consensus that we're a bit too nice - we have conceded the least fouls in the division by some distance. Given how poor we've been at defending set pieces, maybe this is also partially a tactical decision.

In terms of fouls against us we're 8th highest, perhaps an indication of our flair players and speed on the counter attack.

One non-Cov related point that jumped out at me was the discrepancy between 'Fouls committed by the opposition' for Luton (721) and Barnsley (441). They are polar opposites in the table with a differential of 280 free kicks over the season, which for the teams that are 1st and 2nd seems extraordinary to me. Not sure whether it's the respective styles of play or teams going up against Luton in 1st and fearful of the amount of goals they score trying to kick them off the park? Would welcome thoughts on that.
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