Liverpool rank third amongst current Premier League outfits for the most positive bias shown by referees in the English top-flight over the course of the last decade.
This comes from research compiled by Footy Stats on the extent to which officials have a tendency to issue cards (both yellow and red) to teams, with both Tottenham and Chelsea topping the list at first and second respectively.
The study will undoubtedly surprise many a football fan of sides in England’s premier division, not least of all Reds supporters in light of some of the questionable officiating to have taken place with the help of those stationed at Stockley Park.
Complaints around the quality of officiating in the Premier League are hardly endemic to Liverpool, with the invariably poor usage of VAR a consistent bugbear for fans across the nation.
Nonetheless, it seems somewhat surprising that Liverpool would appear to benefit from a modicum of positive bias from the land’s officials.
With VAR having changed the landscape somewhat, however, it will be interesting to observe how the technology’s introduction may impact such research over time.
I’d be interested to know how is positive bias established?
Top teams might top the table if yellow/red cards are just counted without taking possession into account. When you have possession you very rarely can get a card, and hence the more possession you tend to have the more skewed the numbers will be that the team with less possession gets more cards than the team with more possession.