Goals from crosses

[scaramanga]

Scara, he was only talking about crosses, so I'm not sure it is fair to mention "other forms of attack" nor "defensive problems caused". Perhaps you could expand your comment, I don't really follow your point.

So his suggestion on causality was that the reason teams who score more cross less is because the teams who score more tend to be in front and would therefore be attacking less. The teams that score less would be attacking more often because they're behind and would therefore cross more.

For that to make sense, it would have to be a measurable effect across all forms of attacking, but it's not. Teams that score more play more through balls and cut backs than those who don't.

 

[Bullet]

Agreed, he says "a team in the lead will usually play more defensively" but it might be more accurate to say "a team in the lead no longer faces 2 banks of 4... therefore there is less need to cross because they can break downfield at pace and not have to lump crosses in"