Beyond Stats

Fact of the week

Los Verdiblancos’ secret lies in their recoveries

Part of the efficiency of Manuel Pellegrini’s charges comes from the way in which they win the ball back, as well as what happens before and afterwards. They are extremely proactive at recovering the ball, ranking second in LALIGA on counter pressing, with over 15 counter press actions per game. Looking at where these actions take place with respect to the way the players of both teams are set up at the time, we can see that a third of them occur with Real Betis boasting a numerical advantage. They stand second in LALIGA on this metric as well. And if we go one step further and ask ourselves what happens next, we can confirm that they are the team who make the most forward passes after a recovery, occupying the top spot in the competition.

Remarkable Coach

El Cholo is unstoppable

One of Atletico Madrid’s strengths that we are noticing this season is their ability to adapt and change. In contrast with what the figures showed in previous campaigns, this term we can point to their link-up play as the core feature of their game. Atletico play the third most passes per possession and play the most passes per minute. Taking a look at the difficulty of these passes, we can confirm that they are the team in the division who play the fourth most double-pressure passes.

And picking out some aspects of their defensive play, we see that they also lie fourth in the competition on opposing shots blocked, at 25%, and sit pretty in second on successful aerial duels.

Key Player

Lewandowski continues to make the difference

It is not just his seven goals which put him at the pinnacle, it is his personal involvement when helping to create opportunities for his team. He has always been a fine finisher, but now he is dropping into deeper positions at certain times and also creating chances for his teammates. He is the Blaugrana player with the most high-impact attacking actions, and he remains in the top six for total shots. The graphic shows where his goals come from.

The Match up

Rayo’s positional traits as they await Barça

The two teams will face off on the coming matchday and in this preview we will focus on Rayo Vallecano’s positional details. They are one of the four widest-deployed teams in the competition when in possession, which is to say that they create space through positional width to move the ball forward. However, they are also the widest team out of possession, which means there will be spaces which Barcelona can also exploit in attack. They are the team who play the third highest up the pitch, and the distance that they extend themselves from their own goal line can give them an edge when it comes to winning the ball back, a facet where they are also experts and ranked third in LALIGA, with over 78 recoveries per game.

Remember his name

Dovbyk, the table-toppers’ standout player

His per-match performance stats are nothing short of revelatory. He scores almost a goal per game (0.8) and 20% of his shots end in the back of the net. He also has a strong positive influence on goalscoring chances created, as evidenced by his four assists. He is the player on the team involved in the most high-impact attacking actions – those which lead to a goalscoring opportunity. And there is no lack of energy to his play, as the second player on his team with the most high-intensity actions at over 28 km/h. He is undoubtedly an all-round player with power and vision who is helping his brilliant side produce the breakout performance of the season.

Metric of the week

High-impact carries

These are carries which are followed up by a shot. Following the carry, up to two passes can be made before the shot, and it will still be considered high-impact. Another way of putting this is that they lead to goalscoring chances. In this case, we are measuring the carries not by the lines which are broken, but by their end product. Girona FC top the LALIGA standings in this department, with over seven per game.

Beyond Stats ofrece métricas increíbles en la industria del fútbol: no se limita a recopilar los datos que se suelen usar para los análisis estándarque llegan a los aficionados, sino que va más allá, recopilando una cantidad ingente de información durante el partido, casi en tiempo real, gracias a la herramienta Mediacoach de LALIGA, que es capaz de revelar nuevas percepciones sobre el juego a un nivel más profundo permitiendo trazar patrones y obtener proyecciones de futuro.

Los datos brutos recogidos (Raw Data) son tratados para su análisis por un equipo multidisciplinar compuesto por expertos en Business Intelligence & Analytics y análisis futbolístico de LALIGA a través de procesos de Machine Learning e Inteligencia Artificial que se han hecho posibles gracias a la tecnología Azure que provee Microsoft, capaz de procesar grandes volúmenes de datos. Tras su tratamiento, se genera un algoritmo que permite la visualización de las métricas que llegan al aficionado por medio de Beyond Stats. Estas estadísticas permiten a los aficionados entender mejor por qué su equipo ha ganado un partido, lo ha perdido, o tener una visión panorámica de su rendimiento y expectativas, lo que permite una inmersión inédita en la experiencia del espectador de fútbol.

En todos los estadios de LALIGA encontramos hasta dieciséis cámaras perimetrales fijas de alta resolución para el tracking óptico que siguen en el terreno de juego la situación de jugadores, árbitros y balón, recogiendo datos físicos y técnico-tácticos a un ritmo vertiginoso de 25 veces por segundo.

“Encontramos hasta dieciséis cámaras perimetrales fijas de alta resolución para el tracking óptico”

Estos dispositivos permiten la integración, a través de la herramienta de análisis Mediacoach, de dos tecnologías: tracking y eventing. El tracking se apoya en la información de seguimiento recogida por las cámaras perimetrales del estadio, y permite elaborar métricas como las referidas a distancia recorrida, velocidad máxima y media, o número de sprints. Mediante el eventing se registran los eventos más objetivables: número de pases, córners, o faltas cometidas y recibidas. La información captada a través de tracking y eventing se integra y almacena en el sistema formando un conjunto de datos de gran volumen.