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REVEALED! The Premier League's biggest long ball merchants - was Gerrard right?

Next picture Swansea have developed a style of possession football that has persisted under several managers, with Michael Laudrup the latest to encourage precision passing. The result is that Swansea, so far this season, have played the least long balls in the Premier League. Click the arrows above to see who comes next…

Swansea have developed a style of possession football that has persisted under several managers, with Michael Laudrup the latest to encourage precision passing. The result is that Swansea, so far this season, have played the least long balls in the Premier League. Click the arrows above to see who comes next…

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By talkSPORT magazine | Tuesday, October 30, 2012

 

Steven Gerrard hasn't exactly endeared himself any further to Evertonians by suggesting that the blue half of Merseyside are a bunch of long ball merchants. "[Everton] are very similar to Stoke," said Gerrard. "Every single time they get the ball at the goalkeeper it comes in long."

The Merseyside derby match stats actually showed that Everton made over 100 more accurate passes than Liverpool in the game (359 to 257), but do the Toffees hoof it as much as Gerrard suggests?

Click on the arrows on the images above to see which teams have played the most long balls so far in the 2012/13 Premier League season. In this instance, 'long balls' are classified as launching the football up the pitch to no obvious team-mate, not long passes to another player. All stats are courtesy of Opta and correct up to 30 October 2012.

What do you think of the results? Is there anything wrong with playing direct football, or does the lesson of Barcelona and Spain prove that good passing football is superior? Let us know your thoughts…