Soccer is one of the world’s most exciting and most played sports. There is rarely any corner of the world where you can’t find a soccer fan screaming for his favorite team to win the world cup or any other match.
As soccer is such an important game, it also has many mastermind tactics around it to play better or get the desired success. Yes, we are going to talk about Soccer Analysis in detail.
This article will discuss soccer performance indicators from a scientific perspective.
The use of statistics in soccer/performance analysis has been around for 40 years. However, software solutions like ProZone or online solutions like 스포츠토토 allow a more in-depth analysis of soccer games than paper and pencils did in the past.
What are the “common” performance measurements?
In sports, performance indicators are a selection or combination of action variables that define aspects of a successful performance or outcome.
Based on this definition, we have categorized these actions into physical/physiological, technical, tactical, and other parameters and will discuss them individually.
Physical/physiological parameters
Players’ physical capacity was commonly considered a key factor in match performance.
Non-successful teams:
- covered a greater distance in high-speed movement activity
- had higher total distance without ball possession
While successful teams:
- covered a greater distance in high-speed movement activity
- sprinting
- total distance
- total distance without ball possession
Moreover, position-specific physical/physiological parameters such as distance covered differed depending on whether you won or lost.
Technical parameters
Technical parameters are very important in soccer; they are usually easy to measure (such as shots on goal). Analyses of this kind are called notational analyses.
The relationship seems less clear regarding other parameters, such as shots on goal and passes completed (and others). According to Hughes and Bartlett, we have divided passes, tackles, and shots into three categories.
Passes
We considered the overall number of passes, the number of pass attempts during net playing time, and the number of correct passes to achieve better results.
In elite Australian soccer, longer passing sequences are more efficient at scoring goals than shorter passing sequences.
Tackles won/lost
As far as tackles won/lost in soccer are concerned, there is limited research available. There is no mention of the number of successful tackles linked to success. However, top tiers and lower ranked teams differed in tackles and fouls.
Defensively, a low number of successful tackles may have contributed to a high number of goals conceded.
Shots on/off target
There are 26% more shots taken by home teams regardless of success. Shot success rates do not differ between home and away teams, however.
More successful teams have more shots, more shots on target, but more importantly, more shots per goal offensively, but fewer shots and fewer shots on their own goals.
Combined factors
Technical efficacy (utilizing passes) showed a higher likelihood of winning.
Tactical parameters
Ball possession: Generally, ball possession was influenced by situational variables and vice versa. Thus, the variable was influenced by the game status (winning and drawing), the match location (home teams have greater possession than away teams), and the quality of the opponent (less possession against good teams).
Due to this, ball possession itself resulted in more time spent in offensive areas of the pitch and lower total distance covered. It was interesting to note that teams with a 4-2-3-1 formation possessed the ball more often.
Despite this, ball possession was not a good performance indicator, especially when opponent quality and home advantage were considered.
Ball possession in a certain pitch area: The score line seems to affect ball possession in certain pitch areas, indicating less ball possession for the scoring team in the attacking and middle thirds compared to the average for the half.
Zone 14: Successful teams played more passes in the pre-defensive area (before the halfway line), while higher-ranked teams exhibited a significantly higher level of possession in their opponent’s half.
Attacking third entries: There was mention that attacking third entries discriminated successful teams from unsuccessful teams and higher ranked teams from lower ranked teams.
Tactical ability/formation/playing style: Despite its importance for group effectiveness, we will not discuss individual tactics.
Despite being difficult to quantify, performance indicators include tactical ability, formation, and playing style. For example, playing against lower or higher-ranked teams might alter players’ vertical and horizontal displacement.
This would ultimately affect the ability to intercept opponent passes and launch a fast counterattack, which is also considered a key sports behavior.
We have sorted them into offensive and defensive patterns while emphasizing the transitional phase (and pressing).
Offensively: A team’s offensive play in sequences ending in a shot on goal is affected by situational variables (such as the numerical relationship between attack and defense players).
However, offensive actions play a key role in soccer. It was an organized offense that scored the most goals, followed by set pieces (35.6%) and counterattacks (20.3%). Furthermore, 80% of goals are scored after short-duration attacks, and players touch the ball three or four times maximum.
Transition: When a team loses the ball, it is in a (more or less) unorganized/variable situation, which has been shown to significantly impact conceding goals.
The pressure applied to players with the ball in the mid-offensive zone seemed crucial since these actions preceded “successful finishing,” defined as shots on target.
Behaviors near the opposing goal preceded most of the goals scored. Pressed players are generally less affected and therefore less dangerous in/around the box.
In defense, recovery of the ball was seen as a performance indicator, with top teams recovering the ball more quickly.
Defensively: Soccer success appears to be greatly impacted by each team’s ability to control the opposing team’s movements.
Inter-team distances, centroid positions, and the area of the team span on the pitch were used as scientific measures.
Additional thoughts
The second type of research in analyzing performance also discusses tactical ability in this case. Ecological dynamics display self-organizing systems and therefore critique notational systems.
According to this research, attackers attempt to break the symmetry with their nearest opponents. In contrast, defenders attempt to maintain system symmetry by remaining between their goal and the immediate attacker.
Factors influencing performance
As a very specific metric, performance is influenced by many variables and should therefore be considered in that context.
Also, I want to emphasize that the factors interfere with each other, so some limitations will exist for the given references. In the UEFA Champions League, for example, an interesting study investigated the effects of situational variables, including match location, scoring first, and the quality of opposition, all considered simultaneously along with the minute of the first goal.
Opponent (Successful vs. non-successful teams regarding final latter ranking)
The opponent will greatly influence performance indicators and game outcomes. However, the magnitude of influence must be considered about your team’s ability and opponent. Therefore, some studies have investigated the final league standing to distinguish between successful teams and those that are not. In comparison with non-successful teams, successful teams were significantly different in:
• Goal
• Shots on goal
• Shots for a goal
• Possession in general
• Position characteristics (such as counterattack)
• Possession with 0-4 passes
• Successful passes
• Efficacy of shots on goals (ratio of goals per shot)
Score line – Winning vs. drawing vs. losing
The ultimate performance indicator is scoring more than your opponent. The outcome was strongly influenced by scoring first.
Also, when teams return from a goal difference, the score line (if your team is winning or losing) affects performance indicators like ball possession and distance covered.
Teams showed a tendency to improve ball possession in mid-offensive zones when losing. To get closer to the opponent’s goal, teams often performed defense/attack transition behaviors. To score a goal, teams typically varied their offensive methods. The shooting was most common from the center position.
In terms of recovering the ball in their half (center area), using penetrative passes into their opponents’ boxes, and ball possession and passing accuracy, winning teams, showed different profiles from drawing teams and losing teams.
” Funny” information seemed to be that clubs with a high budget prioritize ball possession regardless of the score.
Game period
Performance parameters seemed to be affected by the game period. For example, time affected the length of offensive actions, distance covered, and the number of goals scored as the game progressed. Deficiencies in physical conditioning, tactical play, fluid balance, and concentration could explain the above.
Other factors
The following paragraphs will list (additional) factors that will affect performance and its indicators. It can be some minor factors too. These minor factors also sometimes create big changes in performance. For example, weather.
Training (hours) experience
The non-experienced participants performed faster offensive sequences with a predominance of individual movements. In contrast, the experienced players circulated the ball more in SSG, resulting in longer offensive sequences from the entire team.
Anthropometry
The total distance covered was influenced by body weight and muscle mass. Furthermore, players on successful teams were found to be leaner and stronger than their counterparts on unsuccessful teams.
Psychological factors
While psychological factors were not discussed throughout the article, emotional intelligence scores were found to predict team sports performance in national cricket. The capacity to perceive, assimilate, understand, and manage emotions is part of emotional intelligence.
Individuals with emotional intelligence can deal with interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts, enhance communication and commitment, and accomplish team objectives more easily. Therefore, it is possible to see emotional intelligence as a psychological factor in soccer performance.
Fatigue
Fatigue has only a limited impact on performance indicators. Players appear fatigued towards the end of a game, resulting in the opponent scoring a goal. Footballers’ soccer skills were affected by fatigue.
It was assumed that, most likely, pass accuracy would be reduced, thus reducing ball possession and therefore reducing the ability to control the match (and, therefore, performance).
Dismissal
Performance indicators will be affected by dismissals. Therefore, players must cover more distance, recover faster between high-intensity efforts, and be more active, especially at moderate intensities.
Set-pieces
Dead-ball situations can significantly influence match outcomes. For example, it is estimated that up to 36% of all goals are scored from set pieces.
In defending corner kicks, the authors found no significant association between the marking set-up and the number of attempts at goal conceded. However, teams that used zonal marking conceded fewer goals and attempted fewer goals than teams that used one-to-one marking.
Who scores goals and when
The majority of goals scored by attacking players in successful teams is 62%. In unsuccessful teams, only 25% of goals are scored by the same type of players.
Time of scoring was seen to impact the game outcome.
Gender differences
Performance indicators showed gender differences. For example, the physical/physiological differences might be responsible for successful long-range shots. For example, females used more heading and tried to get closer to the goal before scoring.
Dribbling was the most important skill for creating scoring opportunities, followed by first touch, passing, and individual defense.
It was easy to score goals from crosses received inside the box and corner kicks. Konstadinidiou et al. (2005) observed individual tactics in women’s soccer.
Conclusion
Several situational variables must be considered when evaluating performance (such as the quality of the opponent, the match’s location, the type of competition, and the game period). Each of the terms is equally important while playing soccer.
By analyzing the factors, team leaders or strategists can make a full game plan for their upcoming matches or what type of improvement they need to fulfill the rabbit hole.
We have tried to compile everything necessary while analyzing a particular match, team, or a bunch of players. By keeping these things in mind and putting enough effort, anyone can try to analyze soccer. But only the people who are very involved with soccer tend to do so.
We hope the article “Soccer Performance Analysis” will be helpful for you.
