Are footballers scoring more? We ask an expert

Across English football, we’ve seen a spate of high scorelines, whether it was last year’s 9-0 victory for Manchester United over Southampton (one of the biggest win margins in Premier League history), United’s 11-10 defeat by Villarreal in the Europa League final, the nail-biting 21-goal penalty shootout between Liverpool and Chelsea in the League Cup final last month, or October’s record-setting non-league match, which saw 44 penalties. I asked Duncan Alexander, sports data expert and chief editor at The Analyst, why.

Hi Duncan! So why are there more goals in football now?Do you mean penalties? Or goals generally?

Both!In penalty shootouts, yes, there are more. In terms of goals generally, they increase or decrease based on changes to the game. If you go back to the mid-1920s, there was a jump because the offside rule was changed, so rather than having three defenders between you and the goal when the pass is played, it went down to two, which is what it is now. From the 1970s, goals declined, probably because of improved goalkeeping and more effective tactics. Everyone in England and Ireland has a fondness for the 1990 World Cup because both teams did really well. To the rest of the world, it’s seen as this horrible, grim, low-scoring, defensive, cynical tournament.

I’m interested to hear you say that. My husband is of the mindset that true fans don’t need goals.He’s got a point. Until it went to penalties, this year’s League Cup final was 0-0, but it was a great game. When VAR came in, more penalties were given. Two seasons ago we were on course to see 300 penalties in the Premier League season, but it slowed down because even the refs thought: this is mad. So you get these spikes.

So we are in a spike? I knew it!Wel