Do we need to give four points for a win?
THOSE of us with long memories will remember when there were two points for a win and one for a draw in English football. Football pioneer Jimmy Hill is the man widely credited for putting forward the idea of three points for a win, which was adopted by the Football League in 1981.
Before that, the feeling had been that too many teams were playing for a draw instead of going for victory, resulting in a high number of stalemates. Indeed, a point away from home (or even at home sometimes depending on the opposition) was often seen as a prized possession.
To encourage teams to play attacking football and reward those who tried to win games, the differential between what you earned for a victory compared to a draw was widened. There were sceptics at the time, arguing that football was fine as it was and there was no need to meddle with it.
But it did have a positive effect and eventually countries around the world followed suit. I just wonder whether the time has come to widen the difference again, to perhaps make it four points for a win?
The reason I say that is because the draw seems to have become more fashionable again in recent times. Whereas teams may have looked at a point as slim pickings years ago, it seems to be becoming increasingly sought after.
Of course, you can use statistics how you want. In 1980-81, the last year of two points for a win, Manchester United and Stoke drew 18 games apiece out of 42 in the top flight. The following season, the highest number of draws was ‘achieved’ by West Ham with ‘only’ 16.
In the Championship last term, Millwall led the way with 17 draws from 46 games. Brentford, who won promotion via the play-offs, drew 15 times, virtually a third of their games.
Feeling
This term, Preston had already drawn 13 times in the Championship heading into the weekend.
Cheltenham and AFC Wimbledon had 14 draws to their name in League One.
In League Two, Rochdale had also played out 14 draws. Clearly, having a large number of draws to your name doesn’t mean you are setting out to draw.
You could be in the lead with a couple of minutes to go and then concede.
You may not be good enough to win games. Your strikers may be out of sorts.
But, stats aside, you sometimes get a feeling from watching games and hearing what managers say that a draw is perhaps worth more psychologically than just that single point you get for it.
It can help stop the rot if you’re on a run of defeats, like Reading achieved with their goalless draw at Peterborough recently, or build confidence, which is so important in football, by being a building block in an unbeaten run.
Content
Managers know only too well that a losing run these days will result in the sack before long, so they may sometimes be content to take a point and move on.
When you read the match reports in the FLP, you will hear bosses talking about ‘respecting the point’, that if you can’t win, then you must not lose.
I watched Preston draw 0-0 at Millwall a few weeks ago and they could have won it but for a missed penalty.
Afterwards Lilywhites boss Ryan Lowe said: “Wherever you go on the road a point’s great. If you can turn your home games into wins it’s even better because it’s two points a game.”
You can’t argue with that logic and Preston are flourishing under former Plymouth boss Lowe.
It’s also true that we’ve always had three possible outcomes in football and a draw is one of them, even if can leave a slightly unsatisfactory taste at times. So why not give four points for a win and make it more attractive for teams to go for broke?