Statistics are a very useful thing when researching your bets and can give you a great insight into how a team is performing without watching a game. That’s not to say that all statistics should be relied on or trusted 100% of the time.
Statistics can make a soccer team look better than they really are, or they can paint a true picture of how they played. When looking at them, analyse with an open mind taking into account all aspects of the games that have been played with outcomes that may have swayed the stats one way or another.
For example you might see that New York City beat LA Galaxy 4-1 with 70% of possession and 19 shots to 5. What the numbers don’t tell you is that the goalkeeper for LA galaxy got sent off after 15 minutes and they didn’t have a substitute goalkeeper on the bench meaning an outfield player had to play the rest of the game in goal with 9 outfield players.
That was just a random example however it can be a very true example of how ONLY reading statistics can make you believe that a team are better than they actually are.
Now I have given the true facts about statistics lets get into the positives of how they can improve your betting profits.
Simple Soccer Stats
A few different forms of statistics in soccer can include:
League Table
Current Form
Past Results
Head to Head
Goals
Time
The above table are only a few statistics that can give you an insight on who to bet on and I will go into each in a bit more detail now.
League Table Statistics
Below is an example of a soccer league table.
| Pos | Team | GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
| 1 | Colombus | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 13 |
| 2 | DC United | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 11 |
| 3 | Toronto FC | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 10 |
| 4 | Philadelphia | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 10 |
| 5 | Orlando City | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 11 | -1 | 8 |
Pos = Position
Team = Team Name
GP = Total Games Played
W = Games Won
D = Games Drawn
L = Games Lost
GF = Goals For (Goals Scored)
GA = Goals Against (Goals Conceded)
GD = Goal Difference (GF (7) – GA (3) = GD (4))
PTS = Total Points (W=3 D=1 L=0)
This is a standard table that you will see when looking any soccer league tables.
When analysing the table for your betting needs you may want to consider the GF and GA columns as if a team scores a lot of goals then you may want to look at the Over/Under bet. Also if a team have drawn a lot of games then you may want to place a bet on the team drawing. You can look deeper into this and see where the team has won, drawn and lost their games.
For example a team may have a very high win record at home but lose a lot of games when playing away so this may change your bet depending on if the team are playing at home or away.
Current Form
Current form in any sport is a big statistic to consider in your betting. Confidence is key and if morale is low in the soccer club then they may make silly mistakes and things will go against them when they are stuck in this poor period. On the flip side if a team is constantly winning then a team will feel like they cannot lose and take chances that they may not usually take due to high confidence.
Other things to consider when looking at form is why the team is going through such a high or low period. This may come down to player injury or manager change.
Past Results
When considering past results stats then I believe that you don’t want to look to far back. i think current form is a better metric to look at when betting as when you start to look further than 5 games, there may be other factors that have changed. Remember that soccer games are usually played once per week so when you look at games further than 5, you are looking further than 5 weeks.
Head To Head
The head to head stat can be a good statistic to look at as there are teams with ‘history’ or rivals. For example the final result in a game between Chicago Fire and Orlando City is likely to be less of a heated contest than a game between New York Red Bulls and New York City.
One team may always beat another team at home due to distance they travel, so if Orlando City have a poor travelling record (away record) then when they play LA Galaxy the time difference and long journey may get to them.
Goals
How many goals a team has scored or conceded is a big statistic in soccer as it is what every fan wants to see and determines the outcome of every game. If a team is high scoring then you may want to place the bet over 2.5 goals or BTTS (Both Teams To Score) if both teams have a good offense but poor defense.
If a team has a strong defense then you may want to place the bet under 2.5 goals.
If you research you can find statistics that will you show you how often a soccer team scores .5+, 1.5+, 2.5+, 3.5+, 4.5+ and this stat will give you a good idea of what to bet.
You can read more on over/ under and BTTS bets in soccer on our best soccer markets for parlays page.
Time
This means when a goal may be scored or conceded. Each game of soccer is played with x2 45 minutes, a total of 90 minutes. You may find that a team starts very fast or finishes stronger. When looking at the time statistic it is usually broken down into 15 minutes 0-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-60, 61-75, 76-90, 90+ (the 90+ is for any injury or stoppage time that may be added on).
Soccer Prediction
Once you know more about the statistics listed above you can looking into more advanced soccer statistics and start predicting results or other betting outcomes.
