🧨 Serie A boredom: Verona v Pisa’s 0.89 xG is a problem for everyone 😱 | OneFootball

If you yawned during the first half of Verona-Pisa, it doesn’t mean you “don’t understand football” or “can’t appreciate tactics”: with 0.16 xG produced in 45 minutes and zero shots on target, there was very little to stay awake for.

The entire match offered 0.89 xG (the lowest figure of the season) thanks to a Pisa assault in the second half, an Orban free kick that hit the post, and little else. Verona even attempted just one shot inside the box, which Lovric practically sent out for a corner kick.

This is an extreme case, but the extremes of a phenomenon often help us understand the average level of a trend. Because Serie A is the league that offers the least entertainment among the Top 5 European leagues, numbers in hand.

Only “big” players and lots of 3-5-2 formations

Serie A is the league with the tallest players in the world, according to CIES: the average height in Italy is 184.8 centimeters. But does this physical structure always correspond to equal intensity? Not always, since the average in the Premier League is 183.9: one centimeter less, yet you see a different kind of football, always in transition and with continuous running. 

Here, these physiques are often put at the service of tactics, prioritizing “not conceding” over “scoring.” And this isn’t just an impression, as the number of 3-5-2 formations is constantly increasing: 10 Serie A teams (and 10 in Serie B as well) use it regularly. Another four teams use the 3-4-2-1, and the remaining six use a back four, including Como, which has the best defense.

Obviously, the formation itself isn’t the problem, because with the same setup you can have offensive approaches (Chivu’s Inter) or sterile attacks (Hellas Verona).

The type of match that’s born is the problem: where attacking a set defense becomes almost impossible and counterattacking is the primary offensive strategy—this is the script for many games in Serie A. And what happens when two teams with this approach face each other? We see matches with 0.89 xG, or first halves where at best there are a couple of shots.

Fewest goals scored, few individual talents

This approach to matches is reflected in both perception and data: more eyes rolling at yet another wing-to-attacking-midfield pass and certainly fewer goals scored. The latter is indisputable:

In Serie A, a team scores 1.16 goals per match: we are clearly last among the top 5 leagues. And not only that, if we remove goals scored from penalties, we drop to 1.05 goals per team every 90 minutes: in short, if we see 3 goals from open play in a Serie A match, we’ve been very lucky.

And it’s not just about goals but also about individual initiatives: no Serie A player is in the Top 10 for most dribbles this season. Yildiz is in 11th place, Nico Paz 13th, Atta 15th, De Ketelaere 17th, and Saelemaekers 20th.

On the other hand, we make up the entire podium of best goalkeepers by save percentage: Svilar, Maignan, and Butez, and we occupy 7 of the top 10 spots in this ranking. Surely our goalkeepers are among the best, but also the number and danger of shots, both generally lower, play their part.

It’s a national problem: fewer Italians and few individual talents

Defensiveness is part of our football school and it’s neither good nor bad: it’s a characteristic that is increasingly becoming all-encompassing, starting with those teams that could give more space to young players. Those Italians who are the least used in all of Europe, compared to three other nationalities on the continent.

Italy this year fielded 262 players across all leagues and is second to last in this regard, but is dead last for minutes played: 158,911, almost 13,000 fewer than Germany and 143,000 fewer than Spain.

These data, which may seem separate, all stem from the same principle: “Take few risks”. Bigger players at the expense of technical ones, defensive approach at the expense of individual initiative, already “ready” players at the expense of young Italians, funds spent on the transfer market (second highest spending country) and less on youth development, where most of the rules already listed apply, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle. 

Take few risks, get more bored, win less.

Source: Fbref, StatsMuse

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 Emmanuele Ciancaglini - 2026 Getty Images