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Matchday 30

Quality recoveries & build-up play that offers guarantees

This video illustrates how recoveries can be distinguished not only in terms of their effectiveness, but also their quality. Barcelona record the fourth-most advantageous recoveries in the league, i.e. situations that involve a numerical advantage and where the side in possession has more players ahead of the ball than the opposition.

Given the importance of build-up play in the system deployed by Xavi’s troops, the team’s set-up at the start of the attacking transition is key. This video shows how the Barcelona players react in these situations. It’s worth pointing out that 15% of the Catalan giants’ recoveries put them at an advantage.

It’s your Game

Matchday 14

Real Sociedad

0 - 0

Valencia CF

DOM 21.11.2021

20:00

Season 2021/2022

Reale Arena

Rayo Vallecano

3 - 1

RCD Mallorca

LUN 22.11.2021

20:00

Season 2021/2022

Estadio de Vallecas

Granada CF

1 - 4

Real Madrid

DOM 21.11.2021

15:15

Season 2021/2022

Nuevo Los Cármenes

Atlético de Madrid

1 - 0

CA Osasuna

SÁB 20.11.2021

17:30

Season 2021/2022

Riyadh Air Metropolitano

Real Sociedad

0 - 0

Valencia CF

DOM 21.11.2021

20:00

Season 2021/2022

Matchday 14

Reale Arena

Real Sociedad are masters of creating & exploiting spaces

La Real lie top of the LaLiga Santander table after having amassed 28 points so far this season, which is proving to be one of the most evenly contested campaigns in living memory. In the attacking stakes, the team continues to favour a playing style based on combination play and currently occupy a spot amongst the division’s top five sides for game initiative. The Basques’ penchant for link-up play and positional football gives them the division’s largest hull convex when in possession, as the team gives the man on the ball good width and depth and offers passing lines and spaces in which to play.

In terms of shot efficiency, the Txuri-urdin continue to be standout performers in the Spanish top flight, as they find the net once every eight shots, a healthy return that places them amongst the league’s top six. Their statistics in the final third see the San Sebastian outfit occupy a place amongst the top three teams for points per goal.

This matchday sees the Basques lock horns with Valencia, who have established themselves as one of the league’s most potent attacking forces. Jose Bordalas has managed to instil his characteristic style, as illustrated by the fact that the Che are one of the top five teams for possession in the opposition’s half. The Mestalla-based outfit are amongst the division’s top three sides for shots per minute of possession. In terms of attacking efficiency, the Valencians are excelling and occupy a top-two berth for shots taken to score, a statistic that is closely related to them being second in the standings for the percentage of successful shots

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Playing forwards is a smart tactic to catch the opposition out defensively

Valencia’s direct approach is illustrated by the fact that they lie top of the LaLiga Santander charts for percentage of passes played forwards after winning the ball back. In addition, these passes often overcome whole lines in the opposition’s set-up, which has seen the visitors bag a place amongst the top five teams for opposition players passed per pass. This tactical blueprint requires considerable physical exertion and it therefore comes as little surprise that the Valencians occupy a place on the podium for the number of actions completed at the highest intensity.

Meanwhile, Real Sociedad have displayed sound decision-making in terms of when to apply their press. Indeed, Imanol Alguacil’s men lie top of the pile for percentages of recoveries in the opposition’s half and are one of the leading three sides in LaLiga Santander for percentage of quick recoveries. As a result, the San Sebastian-based side are the team to have scored the most goals after regaining possession in the opposition’s half (along with Rayo Vallecano). In fact, the team features amongst the top three sides when it comes to the number of opponents to be beaten after the ball is won back. All of these statistics speak volumes of the fine job the team does when it comes to pressing the opposition.

PLAYER FOCUS

Merino: the complete footballer

Mikel Merino understands Alguacil’s playing philosophy from top to bottom and is an instrumental figure in all phases of the team’s play. His impact in the final third is clear for all to see and he features amongst the top three players in the division for passes played in the final third, whilst he occupies second spot for high-impact attacking actions completed by the division’s midfielders and has weighed in with two goals. His creative abilities have also seen him emerge as a key cog in La Real’s system. He lies top of the league standings for double-pressure passes completed, with these passes overcoming an average of three opponents and travelling an average distance of 16.21m.

However, Merino’s talents don’t end there, far from it! He’s also impressing in the defensive third, where the Navarran midfielder tops the recovery charts in the opposition’s half, whilst also claiming second spot in the league’s recovery standings. He has also bagged himself a top-five spot in the LaLiga Santander aerial duel stakes, where he can lay claim to an impressive 58% success rate. In short, Merino really is the complete footballer.

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Metric of the Week

Matchday 30

Find out the meaning of each metric

Number of players involved per possession offers clear indication of team’s style

There are a number of ways in which a team’s possession can be defined, with the number of players involved in them being one of the methods that we analyse. This criteria measures how many team members touch the ball during the course of an attacking transition. Teams whose game involves more intricate build-up play and possessions typically feature more players per possession.

As this video illustrates, Real Madrid are the LaLiga Santander champions for the number of players involved per possession, with an average of 3.67 per outing.

HOW IT'S MADE

Beyond Stats offers incredible metrics which go beyond the ordinary in the football industry: it does not limit itself to gathering the data normally used for the standard analyses that reach fans, but goes one step further, collecting a vast amount of in-match information, almost in real time, thanks to LaLiga’ s Mediacoach proprietary tool, that is capable of revealing new perspectives on the game at a deeper level, allowing patterns to be traced and future predictions to be made. 

In every LaLiga stadiums we have up to sixteen high-resolution, fixed perimeter cameras for optical tracking which follow the positions of the players, referees, and the ball on the field of play, collecting the physical and technical/tactical data at the dizzying rate of 25 times a second. These devices permit the integration, through the Mediacoach analysis tool, of two technologies: tracking and eventing. Tracking is based on the positional information collected by the stadium perimeter cameras and allows for the generation of metrics such as distance covered, top and average speeds, and number of sprints. Eventing allows more objective events to be recorded: number of passes, corners, and fouls committed and received, for example. The information captured through tracking and eventing is integrated and stored in the system forming a high-volume set of data. 

The raw data collected is processed for analysis by a multidisciplinary team composed of LaLiga experts in business intelligence & analytics and football analysis, through machine learning and artificial intelligence processes made possible thanks to the Azure technology supplied by Microsoft, which is capable of processing large volumes of data. After processing, an algorithm is generated that permits the visualisation of the metrics that reach fans through Beyond Stats. These statistics allow fans to better understand why their team has won or lost a match, or to benefit from a panoramic view of their performance and expectations, gifting football fans an unprecedented immersion in the experience.