16 Sep The Evolution of PPDA: A More Accurate Analysis of Pressing in Modern Football
In football, pressing is an essential element for any team looking to control the game, whether during the opponent’s buildup or in deeper defensive situations. The traditional PPDA (Passes Allowed per Defensive Action) metric has been a key tool in analyzing defensive performance, but as football continues to evolve, so must the tools we use to analyze it. This raises the question: Are we accurately measuring pressing in modern football?
Traditional PPDA: A Static Metric
The PPDA metric measures how many passes a team allows the opposition before performing a defensive action such as a tackle, interception, or clearance. This value gives us an idea of how intense a team’s pressing is, especially in advanced areas of the field. A team with a low PPDA applies more pressure, allowing fewer passes before intervening, while a team with a high PPDA allows more passes before attempting to regain possession.
While this metric is useful for analyzing overall pressing intensity, it has a significant limitation: it’s static. It doesn’t account for the dynamic nature of football, where players are constantly moving and adapting to different situations on the pitch. So how can we improve this metric to better capture the reality of the game?
Mobile PPDA: A Dynamic Evolution of the Metric
The answer to this question is what we call mobile PPDA. The basic idea remains the same: measure how many passes a team allows in a given area before making a defensive action. However, here lies the difference: the area being measured is not static, but dynamic, defined by the convex hull.
The convex hull is an area that changes based on the spatial positioning of the players on the field, and it more accurately captures the real pressing zone that the team occupies at any given moment in the match. Instead of analyzing fixed areas, this improved PPDA adapts constantly to the flow of the game.
What does Mobile PPDA Measure?
- Passes received within the convex hull: The metric counts all passes received inside the mobile zone defined by the convex hull, regardless of where the pass originates.
- Passes originating within the convex hull: It also includes passes that originate within the convex hull, no matter where they end up.
This approach allows for a more precise analysis of how a team exerts pressure in key areas of the pitch. For example, a team applying high pressing during the opponent’s buildup will constantly adapt its convex hull to better control those advanced areas. Similarly, a team dropping deep to defend near their own goal can be analyzed by how many passes they allow within their convex hull without allowing dangerous penetrations.
Applications of Mobile PPDA
This new approach to the PPDA metric is especially useful in two key situations:
- High pressing during the opponent’s buildup: In modern football, many teams aim to apply high pressure to stifle the opponent’s buildup in their own half. With mobile PPDA, we can analyze how effective this pressure is by considering how many passes the team allows within its convex hull while attempting to regain possession in advanced areas.
- Low block defensive situations: When a team retreats defensively near their own goal, it’s crucial to analyze how many passes they allow in the area in front of the goal without allowing the opposition to penetrate deeper. Mobile PPDA allows for an evaluation of whether the pressure is working effectively to contain the opponent in their space without conceding clear scoring opportunities.
This more dynamic and precise analysis of defensive pressing offers greater insight into how teams structure their play during different phases of the match and can be a crucial tool for coaches and analysts seeking to optimize team performance.
A Metric that Evolves with the Game
Modern football is a sport of constant adjustments and adaptations. Tactics change from moment to moment, players are constantly moving, and situations on the field are increasingly complex. To capture this reality, we need advanced metrics that can keep pace with these dynamics.
The introduction of mobile PPDA provides a more effective way to measure the quality of defensive pressing by considering not only how many passes are allowed but also where and how those passes occur within a team’s defensive structure. With this new metric, coaches and analysts can more clearly identify the strengths and weaknesses in a team’s pressing, whether it’s about suffocating the opponent’s buildup or containing them in the final phases of attack.
These kinds of tools represent the future of football analysis, offering a deeper and more detailed understanding of the tactical aspects of the game.