League Focus: Is Serie A Still The Most Defensive League In Europe?

In the 1960's, Inter Milan were highly revered as the greatest defensive team in world football. At the forefront of the Nerazzurri's success was Helanio Herrara. The Argentine moved from Barcelona to Italy after two rewarding years in Spain before he was forced out of the Camp Nou following several disagreements between himself and then star player Ladislao Kubala.

The Blaugrana came to expect exciting, free flowing football during his time in charge of their team, and yet Herrara initially struggled in Italy, failing to land the Scudetto in either 1961 or 1962. On the verge of being sacked by then club president Angelo Moratti - father of current owner and president Massimo - he was prompted to alter his approach to the game.

As such, the Catenaccio - the door-bolt - was introduced to the first team, allowing the Inter defence to nullify opponents' attacks to great effect, with a midfielder dropping between the centre-backs - thus creating a back five and allowing the full backs to attack as and when - with the player in said position being dubbed the 'Libero'.  

The system saw the club grind out small wins, but also brought success to the San Siro, with Herrara guiding Inter to the Scudetto in 1963, 1965 and 1966 and two European Cups in 1964 and 1965 before his departure in 1968.

Following the success of the approach, it has regularly seen Serie A touted as the more defensive of Europe's top five leagues, with teams supposedly looking to stifle the opposition by sitting deeper and minimising the likelihood of an opponent's striker finding his way past the defence.  

With the onus on ball retention and probing the opposition, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, football fans will often turn to the aesthetically pleasing pairing of the Primera Division or Premier League in the pursuit of goals, seeing Serie A's reserved tactical approach often fall behind their continental counterparts.  

When it comes to finding the back of the net, the Italian league is behind its Spanish and English counterparts. There have been 944 and 934 goals, respectively, across their campaigns this year, dwarfing Serie A's 901, though that is still 31 more than Ligue 1's 870 and 95 more than the Bundesliga's 806, although of course the latter has two fewer teams than its continental counterparts.

Furthermore, recent years have seen Italy drop out of the top three in the UEFA co-efficient table, with Germany leapfrogging them into third and Spain and England occupying first and second spot, respectively.

The figures do little to deter the doubters that Serie A is the 'lesser' of Europe's dominant leagues and with Serie A now having surpassed the round 34 mark, one ahead of the Primera Division and the Premier League closing in on round 35, the lack of goals in relation to their opposite European numbers has further reinforced the negative aura surrounding the Italian league, with fans witnessing only 2.65 goals per game. 

Comparatively, in England supporters are bearing witness to 2.69 goals per game, and in Spain they see an even higher 2.86 per encounter. Yet further, in the Bundesliga there are on average 2.88 goals per game, although Serie A is a mark up on Ligue 1's 2.55.

Unsurprisingly, it's a Serie A based player that has made the most tackles across the top 5 European leagues, with Napoli's Valon Behrami attempting 148 over his 30 appearances this season.

On top of that, across those five leagues, it is three Serie A players that lead the rankings for tackles per game, with Matteo Darmian (5.3) and Arturo Vidal (5) of Torino and Juventus, respectively, featuring in first and second, while Behrami's 4.9 leaves him third.

When you also factor in the poor dribbling success of the top 10 Italians who have completed the most dribble attempts this season, the lack of entertainment in the league is highlighted yet further. Only three of those 10 players - Jonathan Biabiany, Allan and Hernanes, of Parma, Udinese and Lazio respectively - have succeeded in over 50% of their attempted dribbles.

However, while only three players in that top 10 to have surpassed the 50% completion mark, over Europe's top five leagues, the 20 teams in Serie A have completed the second highest amount of dribbles, with 5704 - an average of 16.77 per game - with the Bundesliga ahead of their Italian counterparts on 6692 overall (23.98 per game).

On top of that, Serie A is again second in the total shots across the league, with fans bearing witness to 8905 over the 340 games this campaign - an average of 26.19 per game - while the Premier League leads the way with 9589 over 347 games this year (27.63 per game), with La Liga and the Bundesliga on 26.08 and 25.32 shots per game, respectively. 

Nevertheless, while the shots per game may be the second highest across the top five leagues, Serie A's lack of goals-per-game when compared to the Bundesliga, La Liga and the Premier League regularly sees it fall behind in the preferential order of the football fan and with three Serie A players occupying the top three tackles-per-game spots in the rankings, it is no surprise that the Italian league is regularly dubbed the most defensive of Europe's top five leagues.