Who can replace Xavi? A passing motif analysis of football players

Autor: Peña, Javier López, Navarro, Raúl Sánchez
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Druh dokumentu: Working Paper
Popis: Traditionally, most of football statistical and media coverage has been focused almost exclusively on goals and (ocassionally) shots. However, most of the duration of a football game is spent away from the boxes, passing the ball around. The way teams pass the ball around is the most characteristic measurement of what a team's "unique style" is. In the present work we analyse passing sequences at the player level, using the different passing frequencies as a "digital fingerprint" of a player's style. The resulting numbers provide an adequate feature set which can be used in order to construct a measure of similarity between players. Armed with such a similarity tool, one can try to answer the question: Who might possibly replace Xavi at FC Barcelona?
Comment: 9 pages, 8 tables, 3 figures
Databáze: arXiv