Despairing at the end of a dire goalless Manchester derby, Gary Neville railed against not only the poor performances of the two teams but the state of Premier League football in general.
“This robotic nature of not leaving our positions, being micro-managed within an inch of our lives, not having any freedom to take a risk to go and try and win a football match is becoming an illness in the game,” lamented Neville. “It’s becoming a disease in the game.”
His comments wiggled a finger in a wound which has been festering for some fans of top-flight football this season – the idea that the Premier League has become boring.
That sentiment is in stark contrast to another epic week of dramatic Champions League knock-out football.
So how true is this ‘boring Premier League’ claim?
First, to address Neville’s comments directly – are players now “robotic” and unable to take risks?
Certainly the stats indicate the average Premier League match is now more focused on passing rather than taking an opposition player on.
This season, according to Opta, there has been an average of 897 passes per game, approaching the record of 945 set in 2020-21.
Compare this to an average of 34.7 dribbles being attempted per game, which is the lowest in the Premier League since 2018-19. Of the dribbles attempted, only 46% have been completed – indicating players are not so used to trying to take defenders on.
There have only been 24 crosses per game too, forming part of a major downward trend in the league over the past two decades – that figure was as high as 42 per game in 2003-04.
This can, in part, be put down to Manchester City – as the most successful Premier League side of recent years until this season, their pass-heavy style under Pep Guardiola has influenced the division.
“I was brainwashed by Guardiola, but in a good way,” former City player Danilo recently told The Guardian., external “It was like I was at university. It’s not that I was an idiot before I arrived at Manchester City, but I realised that I played football in completely the wrong way.”
Which raises a key counterpoint to Neville’s view, as voiced by Chris Sutton on the BBC’s Monday Night Club.
“What’s the difference between coaching and micro-management?” Sutton asked. “When Man City were on top of the game they had a style of play and a freedom. Everybody has a role to play, but Guardiola will not put anyone in a straitjacket.”
Teams keeping possession has helped remedy somewhat one of the persistent ills in the Premier League of recent seasons – the low amount of time the ball has actually been active during a game.
The ball this season has been in play during games for an average of just over 57 minutes – less than two-thirds of the game, but still part of what has generally been a steady upwards trend in the Premier League since the nadir of 2009-10, when the ball was active for an average of just 53 minutes and 25 seconds.
According to Opta, there have been 27,719 separate delays to play in the Premier League this season totalling nearly four hours – although this is significantly down on last season, when just over 11 hours of play was lost.
What information do we collect from this quiz?
More shots, more goals, more comebacks…
Fulham celebrate scoring against Liverpool
A prime bugbear for those unhappy with micro-managed football is the changing role of the goalkeeper, with many teams now preferring to build slowly from the back rather than launching quick attacks.
Last season, Premier League keepers averaged 43.3 touches a game in the league, and it has been 42.3 this campaign. Compare this to 10 years ago, when in 2015-16 league keepers averaged 36.1 touches per game.
The average number of passes made by keepers per game is up too, from 26.1 in 2015 to 32.2 in 2025 – and the percentage of those being long is way down, from 78.4% to 46.7%.
However, the quality of keeper distribution is up a huge amount – passing accuracy is up nearly 19% over the past 10 years, while in 2015-16 only one league assist was provided by a goalkeeper. This season seven assists have come from keepers.
So while it may not be exciting, it is undoubtedly more effective.
At the other end of the pitch things have, by many metrics, never been better.
This Premier League season has so far seen an average of 2.94 goals per game – the second highest of any season since the inaugural campaign in 1992-93. Only last season had more.
League matches have had an average of 26 shots per game with 9.16 on target, while last season saw 27.6 and 9.89 respectively. These are the highest in both of these metrics since 2012-13.
Fulham’s 3-2 win against Liverpool on Sunday was the 51st game this season where a team has come from behind to win. At this rate, the 24-25 season will match or exceed the record set last year in which 17% of matches saw a team win from behind.
The wider challenge for the Premier League ‘product’ this season has been the lack of excitement at both ends of the table. If a league has no title race or relegation battle to speak of, does that define ‘boring’?
At the top, the lead has only changed hands seven times this season, the lowest of any campaign since 2019-20.
