Science and football aren’t two things you would normally associate with one another.
But in recent years, several clubs have brought boffins on board in the hopes of boosting their chances of success.
Liverpool has partnered with Google‘s AI firm DeepMind to advise coaches on corner kicks, while other clubs have hired astrophysicists to analyse data and are even using missile-tracking technology to plot the move of every player.
So, can science really tell us how to bend it like Beckham?
MailOnline spoke to experts to uncover the formula for the winning football match ahead of Manchester United’s match against Liverpool this Sunday.
Can science really tell us how to bend it like Beckham? MailOnline spoke to experts to uncover the formula for the winning football match ahead of Manchester United’s match against Liverpool this Sunday
PENALTIES
Taking a penalty is surely the most nerve-wracking experience for any player – a single moment that can decide the result of an entire tournament.
The question of how a penalty should be taken has been so hotly debated, but an expert at the University of Bath claims to have a solution.
Dr Ken Bray, a theoretical physicist and former science consultant to Southampton FC, said takers should always aim for outside of the ‘diving envelope’.
This is an area that a goalkeeper is reasonably expected to be able to reach, while the area outside the diving envelope is known as ‘the unsaveable zone’.
If players kick the ball towards the diving envelope they have a 50 per cent of scoring and a 50 per cent chance of the ball being saved.
But if the attacker kicks it at the unsaveable zone there’s an 80 per cent chance of scoring.
According to an expert at the University of Bath, when taking a penalty players should always aim for outside of the ‘diving envelope’
The normally reliable Harry Kane misses his penalty for England against France in the World Cup in Qatar, December 2022
‘Why take the risk of a 50/50 shot when there’s such an attractive and easy-to-reach placement for a reasonably-skilled performer,’ said Dr Bray.
‘You might just as well duck out of taking the penalty altogether and ask the ref to spin a coin instead.’
Dr Bray also argues that coaches must be in charge of selecting players for the shoot-out, instead of waiting for the players to decide between them.
‘Too often in the past we’ve seen England coaches wandering around at the end of extra time asking, ‘Who’s up for a penalty?’ he said.
‘Coaches should know the success rates of penalty takers in their squad.’
FREE KICKS
Some of the greatest free kicks ever seem to defy the laws of science.
England’s David Beckham and Brazil’s Roberto Carlos were purveyors of the so-called ‘banana kick’ – where the ball curves outrageously to deceive the goalkeeper.
Being able to ‘bend it like Beckham’ is a case of adding rotation to the ball as it moves, which can be done by kicking it off-centre.
David Beckham, playing here for Los Angeles Galaxy in 2008, was renowned for curving the ball in the air from free kicks – coining the phrase ‘bend it like Beckham’
Footballs curve in the air like this due to an effect known by physicists as the ‘Magnus effect’, named for the German physicist who investigated it.
Due to the spin on the ball, the air on one side is moving in the opposite direction to the direction the ball is heading.
This difference in airflow creates a pressure difference – and this pushes the ball sideways.
Alternatively, if the ball is kicked straight in the middle, it will move without any rotation and hence in more-or-less a straight line.
In 2012, physics students at the University of Leicester published a paper setting out the optimum way of kicking a football so it bends into the goal.
They said the distance a ball bends is related to several factors including the density of the air and the distance travelled by the ball in the direction it was kicked.
For instance, if a player standing 50 feet (15 metres) from the byline kicked the ball so that it was travelling at 78 miles per hour (35 metres per second), the ball would bend 16 feet (5 metres), compared to a shot without any spin.
Researchers at the University of Leicester calculated the scientific formula for bending it like Beckham
When a football spins in the air, it is subjected to a force called the Magnus force, which causes it to curl sideways from the direction it was originally kicked. Due to the spin on the ball, the air on one side is moving in the opposite direction to the direction the ball is heading. This difference in airflow creates a pressure difference – and this pushes the ball sideways
However, a player would need to bring a tape measure and a barometer along with them if they wanted to put the theory into practice during a match.
According to another study in 2020, goalkeepers are less likely to save a free kick if they have a wall in front of them.
When there’s a wall, the goalkeeper’s sight is blocked for around 200 milliseconds and their reaction time is up to 90 milliseconds slower, it said.
CORNERS
When it comes to taking a corner, the big question is whether an ‘outswinger’ or an ‘inswinger’ is the better option.
With an inswinger, the ball is curling inwards towards the goal, whereas with an outswinger, it’s curling away from the goal.
Scientists at Ulster University in Belfast may finally have an answer as to which one is more effective.
They analysed the position of all goals scored from corners in a single season of the Northern Ireland Football League (NIFL), the country’s top tier.
According to the findings, 8 per cent of the goals scored from corners (56 out of 70) came from inswingers, while just 17 per cent were from outswingers and 3 per cent were from short corners.
In particular, the highest percentage of goals scored (5.4 per cent) were inswinging corners delivered into the central area of the six-yard box.
With an inswinger, the ball is curling inwards towards the goal, whereas with an outswinger, it’s curling away from the goal
‘The finding suggests that corner kicks are more effective at producing goals in the NIFL Premiership,’ study author Dr Kyle Ferguson at Ulster University told MailOnline.
‘Corners should be an important area for teams to focus on offensively and defensively during the match preparation.’
Meanwhile, a 2023 study by experts at the University of Thessaly in Greece found the percentage of outswinging corners ending in an effort towards goal was significantly higher than the percentage of inswinging corners.
However, there was no statistically significant difference in the respective percentages of corners that ended in actual goals.
Dr Bray at the University of Bath, meanwhile, believes that quickly-taken short corners are always the best option when possible.
‘Taking a conventional corner can surrender possession, while a short corner retains the ball and may allow an attacker to run it into the penalty area – providing a better chance to threaten the goal,’ he said.
THROW-INS
It may seem like an unimportant part of the match – throwing the ball back onto the pitch when it’s gone out of play.
But studies suggest the attacking potential of a throw-in is still largely overlooked in the modern game.
Otherwise known as ‘hurling it’, the tactic of launching the ball from the sidelines into the penalty box was a specialty of the likes of Stoke’s Rory Delap and Cardiff’s Andy Legg.
Stoke City’s Rory Delap is pictured here leaving the ground as he takes one of his trademark throws against Manchester United in October 2010
According to analysis by The Athletic, a throw-in into the penalty area is more likely to lead to a goal than a short throw – not just right away but in the next 30 seconds.
Over the course of four Premier League seasons, analysts found that short throw-ins were worth an average of 0.010 expected goals each.
But throw-ins into the box were worth more than double that – 0.022 expected goals, which equates to 22 goals for every 1,000 throws.
Clubs may refrain from long throw-ins out of fears of losing possession quickly or not having the right target men to score from them, it said.
But even if a player doesn’t score directly from a throw, the ‘real value’ is in rebounds and loose balls while the defending team is ‘rattled’.
The idea of simply getting the ball into the penalty box to increase the probability of a goal happening was pioneered by British statistician Charles Reep in the 1950s.
Today, Reep is credited for the ‘long ball game’ – booting it to a teammate through the air so the opposition can’t intercept it – which many English clubs still favour.
