The Premier League's Naughty Boys

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the sixth issue of the Viz of the Week newsletter, where I'll be featuring a new visual each week and sharing the code behind it.

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In today's featured visual, we'll look at the Premier League's naughtiest players.

To achieve this, I looked at the number of fouls committed (per 90) for all Premier League players in the 2021 / 2022 season and the ratio of cards received per foul.

The results were quite surprising.

The Premier League's naughtiest players.

Essentially, our chart has four quadrants:

The naughty and dangerous (top-right) captures players that committed more fouls per 90 than the league's median and who were quick to receive a card within matches. That is, it took them fewer fouls than the league's median to be written into the ref's notepad.
The whinners (bottom-right), here are the players that committed few fouls but who received tons of cards. For example, look at Ronaldo. It only took two fouls (on average) for the Portuguese superstar to be carded – despite him only committing 0.5 fouls per 90. Note that this could also capture players that moan a lot during fixtures. Yep, I'm looking at you, Bruno Fernandes.
The naughty but nice (top-left) contains players who conceded a ton of fouls during games but were rarely carded. It captures players who are good at getting away with it or whose fouls are not too dangerous️. Lacazette, for example, committed 1.5 fouls per 90 and was never booked by the officials.
The nice guys (bottom-left) are just your friendly neighbors. They rarely foul the opposition and are good friends of the referees. Good for you McNeil.