Analytics in Football - Official Thread

[Philby]

The Times & The Sunday Times

News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times

www.thetimes.co.uk

I reckon Rory Smith's new book on football analytics will be worth a read. One of the best football journos around.

 

[Philby]

Live stream the Statsbomb 2022 conference here

https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1vOGwMnzkMqxB?t=tBT9tfk-uPVrOW5ZjSsgbQ&s=09

 

[Philby]

Statsbomb 2022 research papers

StatsBomb Conference 2022 Research Papers

The latest research performed on StatsBomb's industry-leading football event data, presented in white paper format.

statsbomb.com

 

[Philby]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1579746404477857799

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

Never rated that Mercedes Benzema fella. I mean, what has he won in the last two months?

 

[Philby]

Not his appeal against the blackmail verdict anyway

 

[Cloudy O'Ranieri]

On that table above though, I'd always be looking at a more long term sample in addition.

For context, I'd imagine Schick and Benz were well above xG last season and may be just cooling off.

It's always best to look at things from a 5/10/20/38 (and maybe more) game perspective rather than just going by this season to date.

 

[Philby]

I did some quick number churning, here's the opposite end of the scale

Players in top 5 leagues who have scored 2+ more than their xG

btw - never heard of Sheraldo Becker. Sounds like a composite striker from a counterfeit version of FIFA



Similarly for assists...

Top 20 who are racking up way more assist than their xA would suggest

Note: The cluster of Man City players are surely linked in no small part to the overperforming viking cyborg



Top 20 who can blame their teammates for not converting their chances

 

[Philby]

FBRef are changing data providers, from Statsbomb to Opta.

On the whole it looks like bad news. Broader coverage of leagues traded off for inferior xG data and loss of some useful data points below.

FBref: Leagues! 🇵🇹 Leagues! 🇧🇷 Leagues! 🇲🇽 Expanded Women’s and Men’s Data! New Data Partner! | Sports-Reference.com

FBref: Leagues! 🇵🇹 Leagues! 🇧🇷 Leagues! 🇲🇽 Expanded Women’s and Men’s Data! New Data Partner!

www.sports-reference.com

Data Removed

passes_pressure, passes_by_foot, passes_by_body_part, passes_by_height, passes_by_specific_result, pass_targets, nutmegs, players_dribbled_past
carries, carries_completed, carry_distance, carry_progressive_distance, progressive_carries, carries_into_penalty_area, carries_into_final_third,
blocked_shots_saves, blocked_carries
pressures, pressures_def_3rd, pressures_mid_3rd, pressures_att_3rd, pressure_regains

This one hurts in particular, as I was tweaking a fun Python visualisation around the top nutmeggers in the top 5 leagues

 

[RebelBOK]

The Times & The Sunday Times

News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times

www.thetimes.co.uk

I reckon Rory Smith's new book on football analytics will be worth a read. One of the best football journos around.

Just finished it, really good.