Beyond Stats

Fact of the week

Their high press is one of the hallmarks of Xavi’s FC Barcelona side

The Azulgranas react rapidly immediately after giving the ball away in an intense collective effort to regain possession as quickly and as close to the opposition’s goal as possible. The Catalan giants lie in second place in the LaLiga Santander standings for the number of advantageous recoveries, which are those that involve the same or more players ahead of the ball than the opposition in the moment possession is regained.

Remarkable Coach

Quique Setién, loyal to his style

Quique Setien is remaining faithful to his footballing philosophy at Villarreal. The Castellon-based outfit have assembled an array of youthful attacking talents, including Yeremy Pino, Samu Chukwueze, Alex Baena, Nico Jackson, who feature as a part of the team’s combination play and bold, attack-minded playing style. It should therefore come as little surprise to see the Groguets clinch the final place on the LaLiga Santander podium for high-impact dribbles. Setien has clearly asked his charges to take their opposing number on at every opportunity and they have most certainly bought into the Cantabria-born tactician’s philosophy.

Key Player

Karim Benzema continues to lead on

Karim Benzema starred in Real Madrid’s win over R. Valladolid, bagging a hat-trick on a memorable afternoon for the Frenchman, in which he overtook Raul to claim fifth place in the all-time LaLiga Santander scoring charts. The Lyon-born hitman’s three-goal haul brought his tally for the season to 14 league goals, a return that means that 17-goal Robert Lewandowski is the only player out ahead of him in the standings. The graphic reflects the shot location of his
attempts that have resulted in a goal, along with the area of the goal that the ball entered. The big question is, will he be able to catch the Polish goal-getter in the remaining weeks of the season and claim the Pichichi Trophy.

The Match up

A top clash on the horizon!

Matchday 28 serves up what promises to be a thrilling tussle as Real Madrid prepare to host Villarreal in the reverse fixture of one of the games of the season so far. The capital club will be hoping that the individual talents, whose exploits have seen them come out on top on so many occasions this term, once again come to the fore. The home side excel in the completed dribbles stakes and lead the way in this particular department. Meanwhile, the Yellow Submarine will be hoping to come away from the Bernabeu with all three points and are sure to remain faithful to their characteristic playing style: seeking to dominate possession and win the ball back high up the pitch, an area of the game in which the visitors excel. Indeed, as reflected in the spider graphic below, Quique Setien’s men outperform Madrid in terms of ball recovery rate and the number of quick ball recoveries.

Remember his name

What a burst on the scene for Arnau Martinez!

Girona FC’s Arnau Martinez has been one of the standout players in the current LaLiga Santander campaign. The fresh-faced right-back has everything it takes to go on and enjoy a glittering career at the very top of the game: he’s defensively tough, plays at a high intensity, doesn’t shirk a challenge and possesses excellent positioning, while he provides a useful outlet in the build-up phase (passes, control, turns and dribbles), both down the flank or infield. As if
that weren’t enough, he also has a keen eye for goal, having found the net three times in his maiden season in the Spanish top flight and ranking second in his team’s shot conversion charts.or porcentaje de remates que son gol.

Metric of the week

Double-pressure passes

Double-pressure passes are those in which both the passer and the recipient are under pressure. In such situations, there is minimal distance between the passer and their opponent, and the recipient and their counterpart. The distances involved often fail to exceed a metre, which offers an indication of just how challenging these actions are. As we can see in the following video, Imanol Alguacil’s Real Sociedad perform impressively in this department, with the Basques leading the way in the double-pressure passing stakes (over 12 per game).

Beyond Stats ofrece métricas increíbles en la industria del fútbol: no se limita a recopilar los datos que se suelen usar para los análisis estándarque llegan a los aficionados, sino que va más allá, recopilando una cantidad ingente de información durante el partido, casi en tiempo real, gracias a la herramienta Mediacoach de LALIGA, que es capaz de revelar nuevas percepciones sobre el juego a un nivel más profundo permitiendo trazar patrones y obtener proyecciones de futuro.

Los datos brutos recogidos (Raw Data) son tratados para su análisis por un equipo multidisciplinar compuesto por expertos en Business Intelligence & Analytics y análisis futbolístico de LALIGA a través de procesos de Machine Learning e Inteligencia Artificial que se han hecho posibles gracias a la tecnología Azure que provee Microsoft, capaz de procesar grandes volúmenes de datos. Tras su tratamiento, se genera un algoritmo que permite la visualización de las métricas que llegan al aficionado por medio de Beyond Stats. Estas estadísticas permiten a los aficionados entender mejor por qué su equipo ha ganado un partido, lo ha perdido, o tener una visión panorámica de su rendimiento y expectativas, lo que permite una inmersión inédita en la experiencia del espectador de fútbol.

En todos los estadios de LALIGA encontramos hasta dieciséis cámaras perimetrales fijas de alta resolución para el tracking óptico que siguen en el terreno de juego la situación de jugadores, árbitros y balón, recogiendo datos físicos y técnico-tácticos a un ritmo vertiginoso de 25 veces por segundo.

“Encontramos hasta dieciséis cámaras perimetrales fijas de alta resolución para el tracking óptico”

Estos dispositivos permiten la integración, a través de la herramienta de análisis Mediacoach, de dos tecnologías: tracking y eventing. El tracking se apoya en la información de seguimiento recogida por las cámaras perimetrales del estadio, y permite elaborar métricas como las referidas a distancia recorrida, velocidad máxima y media, o número de sprints. Mediante el eventing se registran los eventos más objetivables: número de pases, córners, o faltas cometidas y recibidas. La información captada a través de tracking y eventing se integra y almacena en el sistema formando un conjunto de datos de gran volumen.