Then it’s fairly appropriate to flag up a couple of stats comparing the treatment of our honest-to-goodness rivals and our own club.
Take the disciplinary record, for example. By almost any estimation, the football that Rangers had played this season has been fairly physical but how does it compare with Celtic?
Well, comparing six Champions League matches, Celtic accrued 15 yellow cards and no red cards. Rangers had a very similar experience – 15 yellow and one red.
So on that basis, it might be expected that those figures would be pretty evenly matched in domestic football, you say.
However, the stats say that Celtic players have received 41 yellow cards in 30 SPL games while Rangers have received only 35 (the lowest number in the league) in 29.
But more striking is the disparity in the treatment of teams playing against Celtic and Rangers. 49 yellow and 3 red cards were shown to players in SPL matches against Celtic. For opponents facing Rangers, that figure is 69 bookings and one red card.
So exactly why does it seem to be so easy to get booked when playing against Rangers? It certainly couldn’t be that their team is enjoying special protection, could it?
4 comments:
Those stats are even more striking when you consider Rangers style is mainly defensive. Therefore, they are more likely to put in more tackles during a game.
In order to do any meaningful analysis on this you would have to exclude the bookings gained in matched against each other.
The 9 bookings we received in the first game at Ibrox is the main reason the stats are so skewed. Take this out of the equation and the stats are fairly even.
Pure numbers themselves mean nothing without proper analysis.
Well, I don't claim to have a degree in statistics but I don't agree that you have to exclude games between the two to come up with general conclusions.
After all, these are issued by supposedly objective referees. It's not the same as, for example, goals scored where every one for Rangers has a double effect in a match between the two.
But even if you did exclude those games there would have been 44 yellow cards against Celtic and 55 against Rangers having played a game less, meaning that players against Rangers were more than 25% more likely to get booked than players against Celtic.
behave , any excuse , mcgeady cant tackle , mcmanus and caldwell cant time a tackle...there is all your bookings
its a conspiracy...funny ive no heard that for 2 years
108 and counting ...89 and struggling
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