This week in football analytics – Oct 27th to Nov 2nd

Here are my favorite football analytics articles I read this week. Enjoy them, learn from them, and share them!

Defensive Distance Profiles – ManVMetrics

We use number of defensive actions to explain the defensive output of a team. Should we reconsider?

Breaking News About Steven Gerrard – StatsBomb

I included this here because it ties in nicely with the Defensive Distance Profiles article. How do Liverpool and Rodgers deal with this challenge? Phase out? Rotate? Replace in January?

Subbing Your Striker – The Power of Goals

The effects of substituting a striker for another one over ninety minutes.

Passes For and Against Per Minute  – Objective Football

Really cool interactive data visualization, with quite a few surprising results. Liverpool are having so much less passes per minute when they are behind by a goal compared to when they are leading by one, it is crazy!

Heracles and the Failed Art of Shot Blocking – 11tegen11

In depth analysis on shots blocked %. Did you know that different ypes of shots get blocked at different rates? Seems obvious, but I never considered that!

Central Winger: How to Measure a Player’s Influence Through Touches – Or Lack Thereof – MLSSoccer.com

Graphs and networks in identifying critical players in a team’s offensive play. This could be used to exploit teams that rely too much on one individual. After reading this article I fell down the rabbit hole of graphs, network robustness and how to identify weak points in a network.

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