Beyond Stats

Fact of the week

Girona’s breakout season is no fluke.

Throughout the campaign, Girona have managed to maintain an extremely high points return and excellent performance levels. They currently lie fourth in LALIGA for shots on target and high-impact actions. But there is also another aspect which is integral to their game: their physical intensity. They are the team with the most actions at over 28 km/h with the ball.

Remarkable Coach

Pellegrini has his players focused on creating.

When Real Betis are in possession, they regularly create chances. They lie sixth in the competition on passes in the final third, a metric which goes a long way to explaining why they are third on total shots. What’s more, they are among the top five for passes leading to shots. They have been maintaining or improving these figures since the start of the season through a style of play that ensures that their link-up play ends up in a threat.

Key Player

Iñaki Williams, the shot-master.

At this juncture in the season, we can confirm that Iñaki Williams is the player who has taken the most shots in all of LALIGA, with a total of 90. He is also one of the five LALIGA players involved in the most high-impact actions, which are those which lead to a goalscoring chance for his side. On an individual level, he has many other impressive metrics in his locker, but today we would like to highlight that he is one of the eight players in the competition who takes on players most often. There is no doubt that he is demonstrating some of the highest performance levels in the competition.

The Match up

Betis v Real Sociedad: the fight for sixth spot.

The battle between sixth and seventh place has been raging for weeks, and Matchday 37 will be no different. Two very complete and highly competitive teams will lock horns, but if we had to highlight one metric for each of them we would have to go with Real Betis being in the top three for shots; and, for La Real, their ability to win the ball back high up the pitch – they are among the top three for recoveries in the final third.

Remember his name

Brahim and decisive actions.

As you can see in the clip, Brahim Diaz regularly turns to dribbling as a tactic before creating chances for his teammates or unleashing shots of his own. He is currently seventh on carries in LALIGA as a whole and tenth on carries into the box. However, not only does this brilliant player stand out for his creative skills, he also works hard out of possession: he is the player with the sixth-most recoveries in the final third.

Metric of the week

Passes leading to shots.

There are many metrics which we can use to catalogue passes and today our focus falls on an action which takes place after some of them: shots. In other words, we are highlighting passes leading to shots or shot assists. In these cases, we count all of them, and not just those passes from which the ball ends up in the back of the net. FC Barcelona are the side with the second-most shot assists in the competition.

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.