Why WHU can foul 3 times as much as Brighton before getting a yellow card

by Tony Attwood

It is time to return to the fraught issue of tackles, fouls and yellow cards.  If all was equal, then there would be a common ratio between the number of tackles that would result in a foul being called, and the number of fouls before a yellow card.

If all things were equal the number of fouls committed per yellow card given would be similar across the clubs.

But as things stand, Norwich can put in twice as many tackles as Aston Villa before having a tackle called as a foul.  Chelsea can commit almost three times as many fouls as Brighton before getting a yellow.  So what is going on?

Meanwhile the number of fouls called per team is also incredibly varied such that Watford have almost committed twice as many fouls as Norwich in the first seven games.

Now clearly committing fouls is not a good idea and so some clubs have worked on reducing the number of tackles they are putting in, per game.  Arsenal led the way on this, and since then Manchester United have reduced their tackle level to 85 thus far.   Top of the league for tackles is Brighton with 140 – about 65% higher.

The table below is in the order of fouls.  Watford are top with 102, Norwich bottom with 52.  So Watford are running about about double the rate of Norwich.  As for yellows, Burnley are top with 18, West Ham bottom with six.  So Burnley are running at treble the rate of West Ham when it comes to cards.

But this is not because Burnley commit many more fouls than West Ham.  In fact Burnley has only committed 11 more fouls than West Ham.  But Burnley has got 12 more yellow cards than West Ham.

Of course not all fouls are equal, but is it really likely that Norwich, having committed more tackles than Watford, have only committed half the number of fouls of Watford?  For Watford it is only 1.06 tackles before a foul is called.  For Norwich it is 2.31.

Brighton has committed around half the number of fouls as Watford but have been given the same number of yellows.  It all seems truly weird, and just how weird can be seen in the chart below looking at the number of fouls a club has to commit before it gets a yellow card.

The number ranges from 3.70 fouls for a yellow card for Brighton, to 9.00 for Chelsea and 10.00 for West Ham.  If you were a manager what would you sooner have?  And then, what would you do to achieve that?

Now I have watched a fair amount of football this season and I do not believe at all that Brighton’s fouling is nearly three times as bad as Chelsea’s or West Ham’s.  Brighton might be a little less adept at the tackling business, but not nearly three times worse.

As noted, this table is in the order of fouls (the blue column).  Clubs  that are suffering by getting yellow cards very quickly, are shown in the final column in red.

Tackles, Fouls and yellow cards
2021/2022 after 7 games

Position	Team	Tackles	Fouls	Tackles / foul	Yellows	Fouls / yellow
1	Watford	108	102	1.06	17	6.00
2	Crystal Palace	113	81	1.40	10	8.10
3	Aston Villa	91	81	1.12	15	5.40
4	Southampton	125	80	1.56	13	6.15
5	Liverpool	103	75	1.37	9	8.33
6	Wolverhampton Wanderers	130	72	1.81	13	5.54
7	Chelsea	117	72	1.63	8	9.00
8	Brentford	115	72	1.60	13	5.54
9	Burnley	106	71	1.49	18	3.94
10	Everton	126	69	1.83	13	5.31
11	Tottenham Hotspur	116	69	1.68	13	5.31
12	Manchester United	85	66	1.29	12	5.50
13	Manchester City	98	64	1.53	10	6.40
14	Leeds United	124	64	1.94	14	4.57
15	Brighton and Hove Albion	140	63	2.22	17	3.70
16	Newcastle United	123	61	2.01	15	4.01
17	West Ham United	112	60	1.87	6	10.0
18	Arsenal	102	59	1.73	10	5.90
19	Leicester City	127	58	2.18	10	5.80
20	Norwich City	120	52	2.31	11	4.72

It was this thinking that led Arsenal last season to start the long job of reducing the number of fouls that they commit by reducing the amount of tackling.

Now with a new defence in place the defenders are having to learn the task once again, as the habit of defending through tackling is hard to eradicate.  But even the slowest thinker among the Arsenal defence must realise that we are picking up yellow cards for around half the number of tackles that West Ham are achieving.

They will know, as well as any observer of Arsenal games, Arsenal cannot get away with tackles, so the fewer the better.

Arsenal are currently getting 1.43 yellow cards a game.  Last season it was 1.24 yellow cards a game, so we need to keep working to get the figure down to that level, and keep our players from being suspended or too scared to tackle when necessary.