possession Archives - Football Innovation Hub

25 Sep Running More Does Not Mean the Same Thing for Every Team

Posted at 11:01h in Research

What does “running more” actually mean in football? Across five LALIGA EA SPORTS seasons, the answer changes by team, season and metric. Total distance and high-intensity running often tell different stories, while league averages hide major differences. A match-by-match approach reveals why outrunning the opponent...

18 Sep The DNA of a LALIGA Champion: What 15 Seasons Reveal Beyond Possession

Posted at 13:42h in Research

Across 15 complete LALIGA seasons and 300 team-seasons, champions repeatedly showed the same performance fingerprint. Once raw volume, exposure and redundant metrics were controlled, the strongest signals were not simply more possession or more actions, but more productive possessions, stronger territorial progression, better chance creation,...

17 Sep Same League, Different Game: How LALIGA Learned to Keep the Ball Connected

Posted at 13:15h in Research

Across 18 seasons of Opta data, LALIGA has changed how possession is built. Sequences of 9+ passes have risen by 173.1%, while possessions last longer, contain more passes and progress less directly. Yet passing speed itself has increased only modestly. The real evolution is not...

28 Ago What Does One More Minute of Football Really Cost?

Posted at 10:26h in Research

Five extra minutes of effective playing time can add almost 3 km of collective running. But that physical cost is far from identical across LALIGA teams—and high-speed running tells a very different story. This analysis explores how Effective Playing Time shapes match demands, why possession...

05 Dic Beyond Media Narratives: The Scientific Truth About Effective Time and Possession in Football

Posted at 12:00h in Research

For years, football discussions in the media have emphasized the importance of effective time and possession as the keys to success. But do these narratives hold up under scientific scrutiny? Our rigorous data analysis of the 2023/24 LALIGA EA Sports season challenges popular assumptions and...

24 Oct How Positional Width Variation Can Help Win Matches

Posted at 10:59h in Research

In professional football, the smallest details can make a big difference. A slight variation in tactical positioning or the way a team presses the opponent can be decisive. Recent research using data from matches in the 2023/24 LaLiga EA Sports Season reveals that the key...

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