Why teams using more crosses score less goals in football?

What is it about?

In football, cross is a long pass from the wide areas towards a central area of the pitch. The focus of the paper is on open play crosses (that excludes free-kicks and corners) directed to a target man positioned near the opponent’s goal, to create goal-scoring opportunities. Data from five top tier leagues (Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A) show that teams using frequent crosses score less goals than teams using lesser number of crosses. The paper provides an explanation to this paradoxical result using game theory.

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Why is it important?

Traditionally crosses are used to create goal scoring opportunities. Only recently it was observed that crosses are not effective in goal scoring. An explanation for the finding was required for the coaching staff and managers to make the result useful in way of tactics.

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