STEVEN GERRARD claimed at his media conference on Friday that the Rangers would have won the league last season had the games finished after 86 minutes.
“Having analysed last season if the games finished after 86 minutes we’d have won the league. That’s the brutal truth,” Gerrard said, as reported in Daily Record.
Chris Sutton was quick to jump in to this one, reminding the Rangers manager that games actually last for 90 minutes. However it was left to a Celtic supporter, who loves his stats, to check and guess what, it appears that “having analysed last season” the Rangers manager is incorrect in claiming that his side would have won the league if all games had ended after 86 minutes.
And rather than the Rangers winning the league in such shorter timed matches, it appears that the champions would have not been Gerrard’s side at all but CELTIC would have won the 86 minute game league.
“That’s the brutal truth” looks like being a big fat Rangers lie!
Here’s why, courtesy of a poster on Celtic Views on Facebook…
So as some of you are probably aware.
The Gaffer over at Ibrox, Mr Slippy Gerrard had a Press Conference yesterday.
In said press conference he was quoted as saying:
“Having analysed last season if the games had finished after 86 minutes we’d have won the league, that’s the brutal truth”
Our Good Friend Mr. Chris Sutton, never one to shy away from people talking absolute pish retorted with…
Reading Steven Gerrard this morning..”Having analysed last season if the games had finished after 86 minutes we’d have won the league, that’s the brutal truth”…
I was under the impression games have always lasted 90 minutes but there you go…— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) August 3, 2019
“I was under the impression games have always lasted 90 minutes but there you go” and he is quite right, it does last 90 mins in fact more when you add on stoppage time at the end of both halves, you average about 95 minutes per match.
But me being me, and anyone that knows me will be testament to this, I love a stat! I love honest stats. So I thought at some point today I will check the 86 minute results just to see how close it really was.
Now, I do not know who did the analysis on this 86 minute match league stat, my first guess would be the old clubs accountant.
Now the differences in this league could have been significant.
Celtic Won 2 less games than the 90 minute league.
The Rangers won 1 more in this instance.
Celtic drew 3 more matches.
The Rangers draws stayed the same at 9.
As far as defeats go both teams lost 1 match less.
These stats changed the points tally quite a bit
With Celtic going from 87 to 84 a difference of 3 points, losing 6 from the 2 less wins but gaining 3 from 1 point draws.
The Rangers Gained 3 points from managing to win 1 extra game.
Now you dont need me to tell you that with the 90 minute league having a 9 point difference that the top team losing 3 and the team in 2nd gaining 3 that there is still a quite noticeable 3 point gap in the middle of that in favour of the top team!
So in the words of the esteemed slippy Gerrard
THATS THE BRUTAL TRUTH!
CELTIC P38 W25 D9 L4 GF88 GA17 PTS 84
RANGERS P38 W24 D9 L5 GF75 GA23 PTS 81
