In the match between Mainz and Union Berlin, the roles are clearly distributed. FSV have committed 90 fouls this season, by far the most, while Union have only been fouled 46 times, by far the fewest.
Ahead of the clash between the two teams from Mainz and Berlin (Sunday, 3.30 p.m., LIVE! on kicker), the record holders on the FSV side are the backs in front of the defence: Leandro Barreiro and Dominik Kohr have 13 and eleven fouls respectively. They are followed by Alexander Hack with ten and Anderson Lucoqui, Jeremiah St. Juste, Adam Szalai and Silvan Widmer with seven each. This foul statistic also includes deliberate handball, which, however, occurs comparatively rarely.
At the other end of the ranking is captain Moussa Niakhaté, who was the only Mainz outfield player from the starting line-up to go 302 minutes without a single foul. With only three goals conceded, Mainz have the most successful defence in the league. Stefan Bell also commits few fouls for the most part as Niakhaté’s sidekick in the centre of the three-man backline. Four offences in 515 minutes of play mean only 0.7 fouls per 90 minutes. Besides Niakhaté and goalkeeper Robin Zentner, Bell is the only FSV regular with a rate of less than one. In terms of playing time, Anton Stach commits the most fouls, coming in at 3.9 per 90 minutes, followed by Adam Szalai (3.3), Hack (3.2) and Kohr (2.7).
“According to the statistics, we have committed the most fouls, but have not received the most yellow cards and have not yet conceded a red card. Do you judge toughness by yellow and red cards or by the number of fouls?” wonders Bo Svensson. However, the FSV coach is not really surprised by the statistics: “The fact is that we are on the move intensively, we want to fight the duels, because these are often decisive moments in our game, just like at Union Berlin. Sometimes we are simply too late or the referee decides that the effort was too hard. But I think if you look at our six games, there weren’t many bad fouls.” Michael Ebert