Secrets of data that are more valuable than goals...5 Keywords to Dissect K League Teams

Secrets of data that are more valuable than goals...5 Keywords to Dissect K League Teams

Blog Article

In soccer, rankings do not tell everything. Hidden data tell us something. We need to understand what the team is doing well and what kind of play it is playing. There are five main types of data used when analyzing a soccer team: △ expected score △ sequence △ expected loss △ expected loss △ pass analysis △ match domination. This is a look at K-League teams by analyzing Bipro and Opta data with Kim Hyung-soo, an analyst at the Korea Professional Football Association.
■Expected Score (XG): This figure takes into account variables such as the moment of shooting, the distance and angle from the goal post, and the position of defender and goalkeeper. If the team has a high expected score, it will be an easy chance. In addition, teams with more goals than expected scorers are highly aggressive. So far, teams with more goals than expected are Daejeon (1.26 goals), Pohang (1.22 goals), and Jeonbuk (1.20 goals). On the other hand, teams with fewer goals than expected are Ulsan (0.78 goals), Seoul (0.59 goals) and Gwangju (0.89 goals). If the expected score is high, it can be said that coaches and players have good chance-making ability. Ulsan has the highest expected score of 25.68 (20 goals actually).

■ Sequence: It is a process from the time of possession of the ball until the situation is terminated due to the opponent's defensive success, scoring, stopping and ending the game. If the sequence time is long or if the number of passes is large, it means that the team owns the ball for a long time. A team with a high pass deployment speed depends on the long pass. Anyang, Jeonbuk and Gangwon are the team with a small number of passes but high pass speed, which simply and straightforwardly attack long kick. On the contrary, it has been found that Pohang, Ulsan, Gwangju, and Suwon FC are the teams that aim to score points through frequent short passes. The team in the middle is Gimcheon.

■Expected goalscoring: The opposite concept to expected goals. A team that actually allows fewer goals than expected can be considered to have good defense capability. Examples include Daejeon, Gimcheon, Jeju, Ulsan and Gwangju. Daejeon allowed only 21 goals at 26.2 of expected goals. Gimcheon (18 goals from 24.8), Jeju (22 goals from 25.8), Ulsan (19 goals from 24.6), and Gwangju (17 goals from 23.4) also had fewer actual goals than expected.
Passes per defensive action (PPDA) is another noteworthy aspect of defense. It indicates how many passes the defense team allowed before committing defensive actions (tackles, interceptions, and pressure). The lower the figure, the stronger the forward pressure, and the higher the defense, the looser the defense is. The teams that stand out in PPDA are Seoul and Ulsan. Seoul allowed 7.755 passes but only yielded seven shots to the opponent. Ulsan allowed 5.791 passes but lost 10.947 shots. This means that the moment Seoul shot, the pressure was stronger. 안전놀이터
■Pass direction, length: Ulsan has the largest number of passes. With 17-19 matches per team, it is the only team that has more than 10,000 passes. Ulsan also has the overwhelming number of forward passes. On the contrary, the teams with the fewest passes were Suwon, Gimcheon, and Jeonbuk. This means that these teams mainly made simple and immediate attacks when they allowed high possession to their opponents but stole the ball.