The Great Midseason Post

By: Isaiah | January 19th, 2009

We just finished the magical 19th game, which means that all and sundry begin to do the whole “midseason” thing. I’m not going to exempt myself from this simply because there are things to report of a positive nature and I’m not above whooping and hollering about how great the team I’m following is currently playing. That’s sort of the point of this site, isn’t it?

If you missed it, Kevin had a great review of the 5-0 Deportivo thrashing dished out by the boys in blaugrana on Saturday — a game I had the distinct pleasure of watching, once again, with Andrew M and inNYC at Nevada Smiths. I will not repeat too many of his points, merely add to them in as many decimal-laden ways as I can think of. And that’s quite a few ways. 14.35 ways, at least.

So, it’s halfway through and the first point — one that Kevin did already mention and one that has been mentioned often in the comments section — is that Barcelona is now the record holder for most points earned in the first half a season with 50. That’s 3 more than previous record holder. At the stunning pace of 2.63 points per game (87.7% of available points), Barça is on pace to earn 100 points for the entire year. That is, of course, a rather ridiculous notion that we will henceforth call CrazyTalk. CrazyTalk is anything that suggests that Barça — or any other club — can possibly achieve 100 points in a 38-game season — when Arsenal went undefeated they earned 90 points. They drew 12 times, did the 03/04 Arsenal team, but still, imagine: 100 points? Impossible, says I. Funny that we can’t remember the lessons of only a week ago, when lowly Osasuna nearly beat us; we’re visiting the Bernabeu, Mestalla, Vicente Calderon, and Riazor throughout the coming months — those are 4 likely draws or losses. But let’s say we win one of them and draw two and lose one. That’s 7 points gone, meaning no points can be dropped in the other 15 matches in order to achieve 100 points. Sorry, folks, 100 isn’t happening. [You should feel free to point out that as of today, Barça has actually dropped more points at home than away -- 4 to 3 -- but I would also point out that we have had more games at home in which to drop points -- 10 to 9 -- and that those stats will be reversed in the second half of the season. Anyway, continue reading for more discussion of this whole home-and-away thing]

Barça has scored 59 goals in 19 games, meaning they score, on average, 3.11 goals per match. The median is actually 3, so fairly close, but do you honestly believe that Barcelona will score 6 goals three times in the coming 19 games? 5 perhaps a couple of times, but even that is somewhat ridiculous, which is evidenced by the utter shock and awe (TM, US government) with which the 5-0 Depor match and the 6-1 Atleti games have been received by even the most ardent of cules. Our only 6-goal haul away from home came against Sporting Gijon, who were just dreadful for a couple of weeks there. We have averaged 2.56 goals away from home — meaning that at home we average an absurd 3.60 goals — in fact, here are the number of goals we’ve scored away from home, in chronological order: 0, 6, 2, 1, 4, 2, 3, 2, 3. Of those teams, only Sevilla and Villarreal are in the top 6, though Málaga is in 7th now.

It’s not strange that we’re not as good away from home in terms of goals scored (23 compared to home’s 36), but it’s still the fact of the matter. I fully realize that we earn more points per game away than at home, but our only loss was away — and yes, I realize that it’s our only loss and it was the first match of the season, but it was to Numancia — and no way does scoring fewer goals and allowing more translate to sustained points-earnings when you’re visiting some of the toughest grounds there are. And I’ll only briefly mention right now that if we have the championship wrapped up by the time we swing through Mallorca and Depor, there’s not a chance in hell we come out without defeats since they (Depor) will be fighting for a European spot, especially if Atleti continues to stumble, bumble, and sometimes rumble its way towards yet another stuttering finish (Málaga and Atleti are tied on points right now). And that’s your Chris Berman reference for the year.

Now that’s not to say that I’m not ecstatic about our team or the way were playing, but overconfidence has never really been my game, or at least I like to think it hasn’t. I’ll probably guess from here until the end of the season that we’ll win every game, but you never know since everyone stack up differently each week when you consider injuries, suspensions, and squad rotations. If it were all the same from week-to-week, I’m not sure we’d have very many visitors to this here blogosphere cranny. [As it is, we hit 25,000 visitors last month -- cause you guys are awesome]

Now to the statistics that you all crave desperately.

Most goals scored in the league: Samuel Eto’o (18)
Most goals scored in the Copa del Rey: Lionel Messi (4)
Most goals scored in the Champions League: Lionel Messi (5)
Most goals scored in all competitions: Lionel Messi (21); Samuel Eto’o (21)

Most minutes played in the league: Victor Valdes (1790min); outfield player: Xavi (1663min)
Most minutes played in the Copa del Rey: Pinto (374), Caceres (374), Bojan (374), Sylvinho (374)
Most minutes played in the Champions League: Gerard Pique (475)

Most games started in the league: Victor Valdes (19); outfield player: Xavi (18)
Most games started in the Copa del Rey: Pinto (4); outfield players: Alves (4), Bojan (4), Caceres (4), Pique (4), Sylvinho (4)
Most games started in the Champions League: Valdes (7); outfield player: Pique (6), Marquez (6), Puyl (6), Xavi (6), Alves (6), Henry (6)
Most games started in all competitions: Alves (27)

Best result: 6-0 vs Valladolid
Best away result: 1-6 at Sporting Gijon
Best home result: 2-0 vs Real Madrid. Damn straight.

Best player of the season: Messi because Yaya is too large to fit in this category. [Feel free to argue that it's Xavi, I can deal with that because it's very possibly true. I'm just saying that Messi is balling out and while, sure, you might argue that Xavi is balling out so intensely I don't even know how baller he is right now, I would counter with Messi vs. Osasuna. And then you'd be all, "Blah blah look who passes him he ball," and I'll be all, "Messi vs. Depor," and then you'll be all, "Recentism is lame," and I'll be all, "Messi vs. Getafe," and you'll be like "He didn't even score in that game," to which I shall conveniently respond that, "Messi is so good his goals from previous years count for this one, too." And to that you have no defense, good sir/madame.]

Back to the statistics:

Overall Record: 16W-2D-1L, 50pts (59GF, 13GA)
Goals per game average: 3.105263
Goals allowed per game average: 0.68

Home Record: 8W-2D-0L, 26pts (36GF, 6GA)
Goals per home game average: 3.6
Goals allowed per home gave average: 0.6000000000 (how you like me now, huh?)

Away Record: 8W-0D-1L, 24pts (23GF, 7GA)
Goals per away game average: 2.56
Goals allowed per away game average: 0.78

Percent of points earned overall: 87.7%
Percent of points earned at home: 86.7%
Percent of points earn away: 88.9%

[I'd like to point out that all of this would be in fun, easy-to-read, full-color table form except my computer is giving me crap, so I am forced to do all of these calculations off the top of my head rather than with a spreadsheet. If any of them are wrong, my bad.]

And the final, bestest of the best statistic:
Lead over Real Madrid: 12 points, 18 goals scored, 14 goals allowed. Nice.

With that, I’m signing off, especially with a preview of the Copa derbi to do tomorrow.

Some Related Barcelona Posts:

Category: Barcelona, Champions League, Copa del Rey, La Liga, Statistics

« Barca 5, Deportivo La Coruna 0, a.k.a. “The big five oohh!” | Home | Copa Preview: Espanyol – Barça, 4pmEST »

Travel Russia

Haha ^^ nice, is there a section to follow the RSS feed
Potassium Bromide

Nothing

that movie has me choked up every time i see it
Isaiah

Sorry, Jason, we'll get away from politics now. Or, well, I mean, I guess I added something into the preview, but it has more to do with my Jayhawks than politics.
Jason

lets not talk about politics on this thread... jason is already bummed enough about the inaguration today. :'(

anywho Isaiah, i hope that you are toiling away with the Espanyol Preview.

Oh and as much as i want us to whoop Numancia silly, they already know that the Bus is effective at stoping complete routes, so they will try it again. I still predict a 4-0 for us though...
Kxevin

Well, Nothing, I wouldn't that I wanted us to drop the Copa tie to Espanyol, but I sure wouldn't be too bummed out if we did. Those Copa matches tend to come at bad times, schedule-wise. Three matches in a week stretch is never good for the lads and their muscles, joints, etc.

I just read over at SoccerLens. Isaiah and Hector did a more-than-capable job of flying the flag.
Tomatutomate

Great post Isaiah. Props to everyone that went and commented on the soccerlens post. Hector and Isaiah and Ramzi all had great post. I'm not sure if Kxevin was there to but if he was than I'm sure he also said something Insightful.
Nothing

My favourite 2 hour movie: http://www.soccerlike.com/?p=1...
Isaiah

I know who, John, I know who! Also, massive bonus points for a Tony Danza reference. But would that player be the same player as the one who rejected a contract based on "yo, that's mad wack, ya'll"?
Nothing

I remember kevin saying he wanted us to drop it to espanyol. But I wasnt focusing on this forum, just in genaral.
john

Player w/ Most minutes wearing a Tony Danza t-shirt and neon green shades? You all know who that accolade goes to.
Isaiah

Nothing, who is saying they want us to lose? Who ever wants to lose? Why bother losing? This winning thing is just too much fun!
Isaiah

Yeah, I saw that, Bill. Thanks for posting it for everyone since I botched that...

I'm wondering what kind of percentage of total goals scored the top 3 goal-scorers on elite teams get on average or median. Ours get 65.5% (41 of 59)...I assume it's a bit higher than normal, but I really don't know. The true hallmark of a great team is the ability to spread the goals around and score from any side at any time. We seem to be reaching that now and certainly would be one step closer had Keita's super header gone in and not fallen to Eto'o -- but goalpoaching is important too.

We're so good it's sick.
Bill

http://www.sport.es/default.as...

There is a great statistic for you Isaiah...
Hector

Yeah Kev, that was me ;)

Here's a reply I just made re: Isiah's post about greatness:

Gotta agree with my boy Isiah about greatness and the distinction between a league and a tournament. Cruijf’s Clockwork Oranje never won a thing but who can argue against their greatness? Sure, they’re remembered for losing to Germany but they're remembered even more for revolutionizing the game and giving us wonderful magic football. They went down fighting in a close game that could have gone either way against another great side but I dare anyone to say that that German team is more remembered than the Clockwork Oranje. THAT’S greatness without winning a tournament. It has happened before.

Of course, Barca has to get to the Final which in itself is pretty darn hard. We’ll see in Feb-May what’s what.
Charlie

Awesome post Isaiah. Can't wait for the preview.
Kxevin

Eklavya, Goal.com says that Obama and Guardiola are two of a kind!

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news...

Andrew, that's a little disturbing. Given the recent activity of the Ultras Sur, I guess the Boixos don't want to feel left out.

Very good points, Isaiah.
andrew M

AS.es reports that the boixes have managed to get hold of a bunch of tickets for the enspanyol game and "plan to shw their colours" whatever that means. i hope this is BS from AS. (haha)
Nothing

By many ppl i meant many barca fans
Nothing

Many ppl (not just on this board) want us to lose the tie against espanyol? R U kidding me? We have easy league games coming up, and when ur in the quarterfianls, u have to go for it, if we wanted to lose on purpose, we do it against bendirom or atletico, not now.
Ramzi

Very good briefing for the semi-season Isaiah, a file to put on the table while approaching the second half.

Just one thing I didn't understand How did it happen that Valdes started more games in CL, while pique played most minutes, I dont remember any game where Valdes was substituted. May be you meant most Outfield player (pique), or there is something else?

I see lot of interesting comments and links, But I am passing by now, will be back later.

Just regarding Messi vs Robin, of course Robben entertain RM fans more, he score for them while Messi is their nightmare, i don't know whats the weird thing you see in such comment from RM Temporary president;)
Isaiah

Nah, Pep is 38. Unai Emery is 37, making Pochettino the youngest manager in La Liga, a fact I discuss in my upcoming preview of the copa match. Sheesh. ;)
andrew M

oh, and he has zero coaching experience according to goal.com. is this true?
andrew M

so espanyol call up mauricio pochettino to replace mane. he is the same age as pep, 36. he used to play for espanyol and newells, and bordeaux, but that is all the info i can find about this guy. anyone know anything about him?
Isaiah

Andrew M, I used a comp, just not my spreadsheets that do the math for me and are all preset.

I wrote this over on soccerlens, but thought I'd post it here too.

I think that Shazback raises an interesting point about perception of greatness. There is little to suggest at the moment that Barça — who, for full disclosure, I am a socio of and write a blog about — is either fantastically great or overrated. As some have said, the CL is the true test, but I would say that true greatness is neither a statistical category nor objectively measurable by any standard I’ve ever encountered.

Leagues are capable of giving us the best team in that subset of teams insofar as two games, one home and one away against each opponent, are capable of suggesting who has had the best year.

Tournaments, on the other hand, give us the best team in terms of who is capable of winning games one after the other, stringing together victories in the short term rather than being consistent in the long term as a league requires.

One of the major shortcomings of a league is that it doesn’t put a sense of urgency on any one game (except, perhaps, at the end when the league becomes more of a tournament if the points are close enough).

One of the major shortcomings of a tournament is that not all teams play each other and thus to claim that the best team is the one that wins the tournament is folly in that not enough data is really available. There are always “soft” runs to the championship game, surprise “Cinderellas,” or mishaps to opponents that help along the way.

If you played last year’s Champions League over again, with the same teams, you’d more than likely end up with different teams at different stages. I won’t argue that Barça would have beaten ManU in the semis were the game played again, but the possibility is certainly there. The games were close and could really have gone either way — what if it was Evra that had flipped a ball to Xavi in the middle and allowed him the space and time to score? If we’re talking about elite teams then any mistake is capable of changing the outcome of the entire tournament via a goal or a missed opportunity.

In my opinion, while a wonderful competition and certainly the most important competition in European football, the CL doesn’t truly represent who is the best, no matter who wins it. Barça weren’t the best in 05/06 simply by winning the CL, were they? If ManU was the best in 07/08 thanks to their CL crown, then it stands to reason that Barça, who beat 2 EPL teams, including one in the final, were the best team in 05/06. Again, I don’t agree with that assessment because, simply put, Barça didn’t have to prove their worth against every CL team.

I would be more in favor of a Champions *League* rather than a Champions Tournament as we have now because I do think the shortcomings I listed above are fewer than in at tournament.
andrew M

jesus isaiah, i can only imagine that right now you are sitting at work or in your apartment babling numbers to yourself incoherently, you have OD'ed on stats!!! especially when i realise you worked them out in your head or on paper without a pc, this is a great post, it would be nice if allother teams had similar posts about them for comparison although i am sure we would kill them anyway.

bring on mane-less espanyol and numancia, man, numancia must be crapping themselves, this is probably our second most important game of the second half of the season.
eklavya

there u go hes the new president now! hope that he'll be like pep has been to us ;)
eklavya

EVERYONE GO WATCH THE INAUGURATION OF BARACK OBAMA. otherwise you will miss history being made...!!
Kxevin

The Great Midseason Post is appropriately named. Nice, nice work. But you knew that.

--Regarding the SoccerLens article, is that our very own Hector defending our lads? Quite well done, even if it isn't. The point made that EPL sides had difficult times against Liga sides that we had for lunch needs to be stated, and vehemently.

And I don't buy the bollocks that the overall level of play in the Premiership is higher, which is why the Liverpools and Man Us struggle against sides they should hammer.

--Lord, how I hope we poleax Numancia. They have it coming, frankly.

--And thanks for the compliments, folks, but I will say Isaiah does the heavy lifting here. I just play. I specifically chose a job that didn't require math (journalism) for a reason. :D I'm just happy that he lets me play along in these parts.

--And I will go out on the limb here: If we remain healthy, we WILL win the Champions League. Why? Because to beat us, you have to get the ball. We don't let teams have the ball with any regularity.

Further, last year's side who were dispatched 1-0 on aggregate by Man U were not versatile. This year, the attacking diversity that comes from being able to have folks lace long balls to Henry is not to be underestimated. Yaya has done it, Xavi has done it. His first four steps are still the best in the world, and can get behind any defense.

What this means is that suddenly, we don't have to rely on the darting run or killer through ball against a side content to defend and just let us run around with the ball. Bring them up the pitch, play Henry or Eto'o off the shoulder of the defense, and let's see what we get.

Alves is another sting in the tail. We didn't have a legitimate crosser of the ball last season. Abidal would launch those full-speed moonballs all over the place, and Zambrotta was good for one every now and again. But none have the ability of Alves to drop a ball on an attacker's head as he does.

The only question is whether to start Iniesta and bring in Henry off the bench, or let Henry run that side of the defense ragged, then bring in Iniesta to finish them off.

So I repeat. If we stay healthy, we will win Champions League.
Isaiah

Exactly, Hector.

Here's some more stats to consider:

The average number of goals scored so far by each team in La Liga is 28. Barça have scored 59, 31 above the average. Because each goal scored is also a goal against, each team averages 28 goals allowed. Barça have allowed 13 goals, 15 below the average. Woohoo.

The average percentage of points earned by La Liga teams is 47.63%; Barça has, so far, earned 87.72%, meaning they are 40.09% above the average.

Visca el Barça!
Hector

Here's an analogy. Sky News is to the EPL what Marca is to Real Madrid. They, in Sid Lowe's words, attack serious questions like: Is Real Madrid/the EPL great or....REALLY great?

That's a tough one.
Isaiah

Well, Hilal, let's be honest here, Cronaldo is the first, second, and third best player in the world. Robben is, obviously, fourth.
Hilal

Isaiah.....am happy you picked up on that. I live in London so I am constantly arguing with ppl here over the so called Premier League dominance. Its not much of a question here, most ppl are sure that the EPL is better, not only better but miles better. Its a bit silly, but when you watch the football shows here, hear the commentry and read the papers it is not that suprising. I cannot wait to face either Man utd or Liverpool, just so we can shut them up. There are plenty of commentators here who still claim Ronaldo is better than Messi because he is "better with his head".....yeah ok.
Isaiah

That is, indeed, a good article, Hilal. The comments are hilarious, of course, about how England's top 4 would hand Barça it's ass on a platter. I'm not saying Barça will win the CL, I'm just saying that it's dumb to think the EPL is better than the liga or vice versa based on a previous year's results.
Söderström

As someone said: Awesome. As usual, Isaiah. And Kevin's work is too, I'd like to add. Keep it up!
Isaiah

Pep, I know that most minutes in all competitions was missing -- I was having some technical issues last night and didn't feel like spending the 30 minutes it would have taken to figure that out. I thought about adding up Alves' minutes and assuming he was first...but that's not very scientific, is it?

Alopex -- I think it's Eto'o by the tiniest amount.

All Competitions:
Eto'o: 1706 minutes played, 21 goals scored; 1 every 81 minutes 15 seconds
Messi: 1905 minutes played, 21 goals scored; 1 every 90 minutes 43 seconds
Henry: 1536 minutes played, 12 goals scored; 1 every 128 minutes 0 seconds.

League:
Eto'o: 1513 minutes played, 18 goals scored; 1 every 84 minutes 4 seconds
Messi: 1398 minutes played, 12 goals scored; 1 every 116 minutes 30 seconds
Henry: 1222 minutes played, 11 goals scored; 1 every 111 minutes 5 seconds.

So there you have it, Henry actually scores more often in the league than Messi. How about that. The HFC is going to be ecstatic.
Hilal

http://soccerlens.com/best-tea...

This is a very nice article......the writer really gushes about the way we are playing right now.
Alopex

Would be interesting to see who has scored most goals per minute played.
pep

Milito...

Jorquera second with 9? minutes against Shakhtar.
JC

what about who played the least mins? should be Jorquera.
pep

There's something missing, Isaiah: most minutes played in all competitions. Which should be Alves.
Vijay

Maybe Espanyol are trying to emulate RM by firing their manager before they play us..

And now we see why the Real Mierda chairman is named Boluda..
andrew M

mane was just fired as espanyol coach. this can only bode well for us
john(cule)

“It’s clear that Robben is more electrifying than Messi. For me, he’s a more entertaining player anyway and my opinion on that will never change.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/17...

Seems boluda is just as delusional as Calderon.
Hector

Great article Isiah!

Just in:

Damn. Talk about an egg in the face. Kaka tells Citeh to take a hike and cements himself as a Milan and football legend. The man can run for prime minister of Italy right now and probably win. Very admirable of him!

Its gonna be awfully hard for Man City to get the superstars now. Who wants to be known as the guy that sold out? Robinho the mercenary seems pretty darn petty
right about now. Hopefully that will keep their paws off Messi. When the time comes (and sooner or later it probably will), I hope or little Lionel emulates Kaka.
Citizen

(this has more to do with the Calderón saga than this post specifically)

for those of you that always like to complain about Laporta's "greasy politicking" and focus on the business side of Barça, can you really name another club chairman that you would rather we have had? His business operations have left the club with a much boosted global brand name and in an extremely solid financial position going forward, something not to be underestimated in Spain's (and Europe's and the world's) economic climate today. His biggest lie – his broken promise to sign Beckham – could have been one of his biggest blessings. I can go on, but I think the point is clear.
archilles

great articel..hope barsa breaking more records. 1st, 2nd and 3rd best scorer will be from barcelona. just wondering if to play against big european team in CL. are they really good enough to face that teams..? in La Liga...they look like unbeatable...

let c 1st hard test against Lyon...
Hector

Bump on BA's comment on the previous post regarding Sid Lowe's latest column in the Guardian. That is absolutely brilliant.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/foot...
andrew M

awesome.