Research

15 Jul Post-Loss Defensive Response: Measuring What Happens After a Team Loses the Ball

Posted at 12:01h in Research

Possession tells us how a team attacks. What happens immediately after possession is lost may tell us whether that attack is sustainable. This question becomes especially relevant for dominant teams. The more players they commit ahead of the ball, the greater the potential attacking reward—but also...

14 Jul How Much Do They Shoot—and How Can You Create Shots Against Them?

Posted at 13:19h in Research

A shot-profile matrix for opposition analysis Preparing for the next opponent usually begins with familiar questions. How do they build? Where do they progress? What happens after they regain possession? How do they defend their box? But those questions can be reorganised around two outcomes that matter...

10 Jul Do you measure how long a player is on the pitch—or what they actually do while they are there?

Posted at 12:20h in Research

Football performance is usually normalised by time. Metres per minute. High-intensity distance per minute. Accelerations per minute. Technical actions per 90. This approach is useful, consolidated and easy to interpret. But it places one variable at the centre of the analysis: time on the pitch. What happens when...

08 Jul Return to Competition: A Practical Protocol to Assess Match Readiness After Injury

Posted at 12:42h in Research

Return to competition protocolDescarga A player can be medically cleared, train with the squad, be available for selection and even play minutes… while still not being back to his real competitive level. That is the starting point of this protocol. The key question is not simply: Can he play? The...

07 Jul Goalkeeper Data Is Not Always Goalkeeper Performance

Posted at 12:25h in Research

Football assigns many numbers to goalkeepers. Goals conceded. Shots faced. Shots on target faced. xGOT conceded. Expected goals against. Crosses faced. Saves. Clean sheets. Goals prevented. They all appear in the goalkeeper’s statistical profile. But they do not all measure the goalkeeper in the same way. That distinction is...

03 Jul Optimal Acceleration Profile: It Does Not Mean Maximum, It Means Matched to the Demand

Posted at 11:03h in Research

Two wingers can cover the same sprint distance. Two centre-backs can perform the same number of accelerations. Two forwards can reach similar peak speeds. And yet, their acceleration profiles may be completely different. That difference matters. Because in football, acceleration is not only about how often a player accelerates....