This study explores the age-old question in football: does playing “good football” lead to success? Going beyond aesthetics, good football is defined by tactical intelligence, team cohesion, skillful execution, and consistency. Through a multi-level analysis, the research examines whether performance-based metrics correlate with glory in elite football competitions.
Three case studies form the core of this exploration: (1) Real Madrid’s 2023–2024 UEFA Champions League (UCL) campaign, showcasing their balance between possession, creativity, and efficiency; (2) the last 14 UCL finals, analyzing whether champions shared common traits in key performance indicators such as possession, passing accuracy, and xG; and (3) the Premier League’s top 20 individual performers based on xG and xAG, investigating the link between elite player performance and team success.
Findings indicate that while styles vary from possession approaches to pragmatic counter-attacking teams that consistently execute a cohesive, tactical brand of football are more likely to achieve success. Real Madrid and Manchester City illustrate different but effective interpretations of good football. In the UCL, technical metrics matter, but mental resilience (“grinta”) often decides finals. Meanwhile, in the Premier League, sustained individual brilliance is a key contributor to team success over a long season. Ultimately, the data supports the argument that good football marked by intelligence, cohesion, and execution is not only beautiful but often victorious.

  « Good football » is about more than just the aesthetics of the game. It refers to playing with skill, teamwork, and intelligent tactics, where possession is controlled, attacking opportunities are created, and defensive actions are executed effectively.

Good football is when a team plays in a cohesive, well-organized, and aesthetically pleasing manner, where technique and strategy are as important as the final score.

As Carlo Ancelotti once said, « Football is the most important of the less important things in life. »  This quote captures the paradox at the heart of the sport.

For many, football transcends being a mere game. It’s an art, a drama unfolding on the pitch. But what exactly makes it beautiful? Is it the goals, the passes, or the harmonious interplay between the players? It’s not just about winning, but how that victory is achieved through creativity, fluidity, and passion. The beauty of the game often shines brightly in those magical moments when a perfectly executed team move leads to a goal.

Johan Cruyff, one of the most influential figures in football history, put it simply: « Playing football is simple, but playing simple football is difficult. » His philosophy of Total Football revolutionized the sport, teaching that mastery lies not in complexity, but in understanding the game’s simplicity and executing it perfectly. Cruyff’s Barcelona teams demonstrated a fast-paced, possession-based style, demanding high skill and tactical intelligence, with every player involved in both attack and defense.
In contrast to Cruyff’s elegant philosophy, José Mourinho’s approach is more pragmatic. He once remarked, « My opponent can have the ball; I will take the three points. » Mourinho’s philosophy focuses on defensive solidity and counterattacking.
For him, the result is always paramount, often at the expense of possession and style. Mourinho’s teams excelled in exploiting opposition weaknesses, focusing on tactical discipline and making the most of limited opportunities.
On the other hand, Tiki-Taka, as embraced by Barcelona and Spain, embodies the beauty of total control. This style focuses on dominating the game with short passes, constant movement, and exhausting the opposition through precision and collective harmony. For managers like Pep Guardiola, Tiki-Taka is the ultimate expression of football beauty, an art form where skill, precision, and tactical cohesion are on full display.
This contrast between Cruyff’s and Mourinho’s footballing philosophies highlights the diversity in football approaches: one values the aesthetic and tactical elegance of possession-based football, while the other focuses on practical, result-oriented strategies. Both philosophies can bring success, but they reflect the underlying tension in football between style and substance.

Ultimately, good football is not just about winning it’s about how the game is played, whether through possession or pragmatic counter-attacks.

In this analysis, the aim is to investigate whether the outcome of a football match is primarily influenced by a team’s performance or if it is largely determined by luck.

Firstly, three datasets will be analyzed: Real Madrid, the team that won the UEFA Champions League (UCL) final, will be studied to assess whether its performance played a role in securing victory. (1)

Secondly, the performance of the winners from the last 14 UCL finals will be analyzed to determine its impact on their success. (2)

Lastly, the Premier League will be considered to evaluate whether players with exceptional football skills contribute to the success of the top teams that win the league. (3)

• UCL: is an annual European football competition where the top teams from Europe compete for the title of European champions.
• Premier League: is the highest professional football league in England, where 20 teams compete each season for the national title.

1. Real Madrid’s UCL 2023-2024 Campaign

Real Madrid, one of the most successful clubs in UCL history, has once again proven that good football, based on tactical intelligence and discipline, leads to glory.
The club’s performance in the 2023-2024 campaign demonstrates a perfect balance between possession control, progressive passing, and defensive discipline.
Real Madrid has consistently shown that, while they might not always dominate possession, their tactical approach and team cohesion allow them to maintain effectiveness.

• Key Metrics for Analysis

To explore whether playing good football leads to success in the UCL, we selected several key parameters that can help us visualize Real Madrid’s 2023-2024 UCL campaign:

• Possession: A measure of how much control a team has over the ball during a match.
• Goals per 90: The average number of goals scored per 90 minutes, reflecting a team’s attacking efficiency.
• xG per 90: Expected goals per 90 minutes, a statistic that measures the quality of a team’s scoring opportunities.
• Carries per match: The number of times a player advances the ball by running with it, indicating a team’s attacking progression.
• Passes per match: The total number of passes a team completes, showing their emphasis on possession and teamwork.

By analyzing these statistics, insights are gained into how Real Madrid’s tactical approach aligns with the principles of good football and how these metrics contributed to their success in the 2023-2024 UCL campaign.

Even though xG and Goals per 90 seem closely related, as demonstrated in the heatmap, the correlation between the two is only 0.68, which is relatively low compared to other metrics. This suggests that while there is a connection, it’s not as strong as one might expect.

This graph illustrates Real Madrid’s rankings in key statistics for the 2023-2024 UCL season. Real Madrid ranked in the top 6 for possession, indicating that while they weren’t the best at controlling the ball compared to the top teams, their overall possession wasn’t weak. However, their goals per 90 and xG per 90 stats placed them among the top 2, suggesting that although their possession may not have been dominant, they were highly effective at creating and converting goal-scoring opportunities.

Their carries per match and passes per match ranked in the top 5, showing that while they were strong in progressing the ball and maintaining possession, they weren’t the absolute best in these aspects. This aligns with the principles of playing « good football, » which emphasizes cohesive team play and tactical discipline. Although this data suggests that Real Madrid might not have been the most visually appealing team to watch, they ultimately won the title, proving the effectiveness of their approach.

Real Madrid’s Stats compared to Other Teams:

In this graph, Real Madrid’s performance is compared to the top 5 teams based on their average rank for the 2023-2024 UCL season. Real Madrid is ranked 2nd, just behind Manchester City, which holds the top position. Teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich follow in the rankings.
Interestingly, despite not having the highest possession stats, Real Madrid’s effectiveness in other areas, such as goals per 90 and xG per 90, suggests that their tactical approach mixing possession control with effective offensive play is indeed successful. Manchester City, however, ranks highest in the average rank, demonstrating how the balance of possession and high offensive output leads to sustained success.
While Manchester City’s football is both statistically and visually superior, with more dominant possession and a more aesthetically pleasing style of play, they still lost to Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of this edition. This highlights an important contrast: while City’s style may be more exciting and statistically superior, Real Madrid’s tactical discipline and ability to capitalize on key moments allowed them to prevail.

2- UCL Finals History: Winners and Good Football

Looking back at the last 14 UCL finals, we can track how teams that played good football achieved success. Good football isn’t just about flashy moments but about controlling key aspects of the game like possession, passing, and creating chances.
To explore this, we’ll focus on tracking the key statistics for the last 14 UCL finals, as the older finals lack advanced data that we need for a more comprehensive analysis.

The key stats we’ll look at are:

• Possession: A measure of how much control a team has over the ball during a match, indicating dominance in the game.
• Accurate Passes: The number of successful passes a team makes, reflecting their ability to keep possession and create attacking opportunities.
• Total Shots: The number of shots taken by a team, showing how many chances they create in the attacking phase.
• Expected Goals (xG): A metric that estimates the quality of a team’s scoring chances, offering insights into their offensive efficiency.
• Interceptions: The number of times a team intercepts the ball, highlighting defensive work and the ability to disrupt opposition play.
• Dribbles Completed: The number of successful dribbles by a team, demonstrating their creativity and ability to break through the opposition’s defense.

These statistics provide a clear picture of how teams that embody good football in terms of skill, tactical discipline, and team cohesion have achieved success in recent UCL finals.

Let’s dive into how the best teams of the last 14 finals performed across these key parameters.

Looking at this radar chart, we can observe that the performance of winners varies across each statistic, with different percentages reflecting their superiority in each category.

For example, stats like possession, total shots, and expected goals all show higher percentages, with teams who performed better in those areas winning a majority of the time. However, in other statistics like interceptions and dribbles completed, the percentage is notably lower.

This highlights that good football characterized by possession control, creating chances, and efficient play does not guarantee victory in the UCL finals.

The key takeaway here is that while playing « good football » certainly increases your chances, it is not the sole factor that determines success in high-stakes matches. Football is unpredictable, and in the end, it is often the grit and determination—the « grinta »—that makes the difference. Grinta, an Italian term used in football, refers to a team’s attitude and commitment, especially in challenging moments. It’s about resilience, aggression, and fighting spirit, which can sometimes outweigh purely technical skills or tactics. Hence, while good football increases your chances of success, it is the mental toughness and desire to win that often defines the outcome in the biggest finals.

3- Evaluating the Impact of Exceptional Football Skills on Premier League Success

In football, a player’s consistent contribution in terms of goals and assists is a key indicator of their overall impact on a team’s performance.

This analysis aims to evaluate the influence of players who produce the best football. Specifically, we will explore whether players who excel in both Expected Goals (xG) and Expected Assists (xAG) will emerge as some of the best performers by the end of the season.

Through this study, we will investigate the correlation between individual player contributions and team success in the 2023-2024 Premier League season. Our focus will be on the performance of the top 20 players in the league to examine how playing the best football can impact a team’s ability to secure the league title.

The top 20 players in the Premier League for the 2023-2024 season, based on the sum of Expected Goals (xG) and Expected Assists (xAG), are considered. The analysis focuses on players who demonstrated the greatest potential in creating offensive opportunities, combining the ability to score and assist.

The visualization illustrates how the best performers in the Premier League compare in terms of their combined xG and xAG. Erling Haaland, with 33.5 in combined xG and xAG, stands as the top performer.

• Comparison of players’ performances with the positions of their teams:
  • Manchester City, with a strong presence of players like Haaland, Foden, and Alvarez, is represented by blue bars. This emphasizes their dominance in offensive creation.
  • Arsenal, with players like Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard, is marked with red bars, showcasing their top players who contribute significantly to their attack.
  • The other players, in gray, represent teams that have had valuable individual contributions but may not have reached the level of consistency seen in the top two clubs.

• How is it linked to Success in the Premier League?

The top two teams, Manchester City and Arsenal, not only had players who contributed significantly to the attack (such as Haaland and Saka) but also consistently ranked high in xG and xAG. These players were among the best in the competition, which was key to their teams’ success. In fact, both Manchester City and Arsenal had 3 players each in the top 20 for combined xG and xAG, underlining the importance of having multiple top performers throughout the squad.

This reflects why both teams finished first and second in the league. Manchester City and Arsenal’s success can be attributed to having the best players playing the best football. While Manchester City had more depth in their offensive output, Arsenal also demonstrated high levels of performance, particularly from key players like Saka and Ødegaard.

In the Premier League, consistency is essential. Unlike the UCL, which features fewer matches, the Premier League requires teams to perform consistently over 38 games. This emphasizes the importance of good football, which is cohesive, skillful, well-organized, and aesthetically pleasing. Teams that can maintain high levels of play throughout the season, rather than relying on isolated moments of brilliance, are more likely to come out on top. Therefore, having top performers who contribute regularly in both goals and assists, such as Haaland and Saka, demonstrates that good football can lead to success in the league.

In conclusion, this article explored the concept of « Good Football » and its potential to lead to success in top-level competitions like the UCL and the Premier League. Good football, characterized by skill, teamwork, and intelligent tactics, is not just about winning, but about how the victory is achieved through cohesive play, creativity, and consistency.

The analysis of Real Madrid’s 2023-2024 UCL campaign reinforced that tactical discipline, possession control, and effective offensive play are essential elements of good football. While Real Madrid did not dominate possession, their ability to create and convert opportunities efficiently made them a formidable force. This approach illustrated how good football can lead to success, even when possession is not the most dominant aspect of a team’s play. Furthermore, the comparison with Manchester City’s emphasis on possession and offensive output highlighted that a balanced approach—blending possession with tactical discipline and creativity can bring consistent success.

Looking back at the last 14 UEFA Champions League finals, the article examined key statistics such as possession, accurate passes, shots, xG, interceptions, and dribbles completed. It became evident that teams who excelled in possession, chance creation, and efficient passing had a greater likelihood of winning. However, the importance of mental toughness and resilience—referred to as « grinta » in Italian football—also emerged as a decisive factor in high-stakes finals. This emphasized the unpredictable nature of football, where technical skills and tactics are essential, but determination and fighting spirit often determine the final result.

In the Premier League, players like Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah, who consistently posted outstanding xG and xAG statistics, were key to their teams’ success. Manchester City and Arsenal, with top-performing players, dominated the league, showcasing that good football, combined with consistent individual contributions, can lead to league glory. The Premier League’s longer format requires sustained excellence, making consistency even more crucial compared to shorter tournaments like the UCL.

Ultimately, this analysis concludes that while different footballing philosophies exist, good football through cohesive, skillful, and well-executed play leads to success. Whether in the UCL or the Premier League, teams that maintain high levels of performance and play good football are more likely to emerge as champions. The data suggests that playing good football is not merely about individual brilliance but about maintaining a high standard of play over time. This makes consistency as important as creativity and tactical discipline in achieving glory.

Maroun El Halaby