The Expert: Analysing whether fouls equate to dirtiness

The admission from Arsene Wenger that he has told Granit Xhaka not to tackle was startling – not just because it was an acknowledgement that a holding midfielder for whom he paid more than £30m is deficient in what is generally regarded as one of the key arts of his position - if not by Pep Guardiola - but because it was an invitation to opponents. Go on, Wenger was effectively saying, run at him, and he’ll either foul you or pull out of a challenge for fear of fouling you. Assuming it wasn’t a subtle double bluff, that is a remarkable message to send out. 

Yet Xhaka is not the dirtiest player in the Premier League, far from it. With just 1.3 fouls per game, in fact, he lies a lowly 59th in the list of players who offend most frequently. That, though, doesn’t tell the full story. There are fouls, and there are fouls. Dirtiness is not easily quantified. 

Look back through history and Niall Quinn and Kevin Davies always used to top the most fouls per season charts, with the latter doing so in the 2009/10 season (3.3 fouls per game) and the 2010/11 season (3.2 fouls per game). Peter Crouch was rarely far behind. Big centre-forwards are always being penalised, partly because of how they play and partly because when two players tangle in the air in the box, it’s always easier for referees to give the free-kick to the defending team rather than award a penalty. 

Sure enough, this season Christian Benteke has committed fouls at a greater rate than anyone else with 2.2 per game. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is fifth in the list, Fernando Llorente 13th and Vincent Jansson 15th. Big centre-forwards still get penalised a lot. None of those four make more than a tackle a game; Benteke makes only 0.2. Their foul count is a result of old-fashioned, traditional jumping for headers. Benteke, in fact, has won an astonishing 9.2 aerials per game this season, 2.2 clear of Crouch in second. 

But what is intriguing looking at the top 10 in that fouls per game list is the presence of a very different type of forward, Roberto Firmino. He has committed 1.9 fouls per game but wins just 1.7 aerial duels per game. His foul count is not the result of challenging for crosses, but the very modern role of leading the press. He makes 1.8 tackles per game. Sometimes he mistimes them and so commits fouls - and in terms of stopping the opponent breaking, Liverpool are probably quite happy for him to do so. 

Firmino’s figures for fouls or tackles, in fact, are notably similar to the midfielders and full-backs on the list, players like Paul Pogba and Victor Wanyama, who commit fouls the second and third most often. Again that makes sense in terms of the way they play. They are big, muscular players. Occasionally they will be penalised when all they have done is overpowered an opponent, but essentially their foul count is a result of how regularly and with what vigour they attempt to win the ball back. Pogba makes 1.8 tackles per game, Wanyama 2.7. Marten de Roon (1.9), sixth on the list, has similar figures. 

But that does not really equate to dirtiness. Xhaka is one of only two players, along with Fernandinho, to have been sent off twice in the league this season. Fernandinho was also sent off in the Champions League, but one of his reds was for violent conduct against Cesc Fabregas. Only Xhaka has twice been sent off for bad tackles. 

Is even that necessarily dirty? Perhaps not. Dirty implies a level of malice or forethought whereas the suspicion is that Xhaka is simply wild, that his enthusiasm for regaining possession cannot be curtailed. Either way, a defensive midfielder who cannot tackle safely is a major problem, while dirtiness remains a concept not readily elucidated by statistics.