Web Clubs

LALIGA

Institutional

LALIGA

with sport

LALIGA

Group

LALIGA

INSTITUTIONAL

LALIGA WITH

SPORT

LALIGA

GROUP

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 10

FC Barcelona

1 - 2

Real Madrid

DOM 24.10.2021

14:15

Season 2021/2022

Spotify Camp Nou

FC Barcelona

1 - 2

Real Madrid

DOM 24.10.2021

14:15

Season 2021/2022

Matchday 10

Spotify Camp Nou

Los Azulgrana's build-up play versus Los Blancos' effectiveness

ElClasico brings two of Spanish football's rivals par excellence head to head. FC Barcelona host Real Madrid as the team with greatest possession ratio, initiative and attacking build-up play in the competition, or in other words, a team that attempts to control the game through possession. Ronald Koeman's charges hold the top spot when it comes to the number of passes, and are second on the percentage of possession accumulated in the opposing half. However, it is not all about keeping the ball. Once they lose it, this Barça team have shown that they work hard to win it back: they are among the top three on the percentage of recoveries in the opposing half. The effectiveness of their pressing after losing the ball reduces the need to sit back and defend, minimising the threat to their goal: they are among the top five teams who concede the fewest shots.

They take on their arch-rivals, Real Madrid, who head into the clash with their attacking effectiveness as their trump card. Los Blancos are the side who unleash the most shots in the competition, and the one who manage to place the greatest percentage of their shots on target. The outfit overseen by Carlo Ancelotti is also the one with the greatest effectiveness in all of LaLiga Santander both when it comes to building up the play and finishing: they are the team who need the fewest shots to score a goal. Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr, among others, are managing to convert the team's attacking potential into a veritable onslaught for opposing defences and goalkeepers. They are on fire up front!

Share
Share
Share
Share

Two veritable attacking machines go head-to-head in ElClasico

The time for LaLiga's stars to do battle has arrived. FC Barcelona and Real Madrid face each other in the most eagerly awaited match of the season. Los Azulgranas stand out for their ability to gain ground in each of their attacking moves: they are the team who advance the greatest distance per possession in all of LaLiga Santander. Koeman's men are also second in the competition in terms of involving the most players in each possession, as well as the team who make the most double-pressure passes per match. All of these metrics demonstrate their intent and ability to link-up in tight spaces.

Los Blancos, meanwhile, are the team who have scored the most goals in the competition, by some margin, notching up a total of 22. Real Madrid serve up a more direct game than their opponents, showing an outstanding efficiency: they are the team with the greatest percentage of dangerous possessions ending in a goal. Their attacks are characterised by their power and explosiveness, as the team in LaLiga Santander who perform the most maximum-intensity actions; i.e., moves where they run at least 10 metres at over 28 km/h. They are also among the top three teams in the division who perform the most very high-intensity actions; i.e., who perform the most actions at over 24 km/h (covering at least 15 metres).

PLAYER FOCUS

Karim Benzema: pure class in ElClasico

The French striker goes into the match against FC Barcelona as LaLiga Santander's standout player so far. Benzema is the top goalscorer and the top assist-provider in the championship, with nine goals and seven assists in just eight games, and he plays a direct role in almost 70% of his team's goals. He is also the player who fires off the most shots in the competition. As for his influence on the build-up, it is worth stressing that he makes the most passes in the attacking zone in the entire division. In this regard, he has an average of 2.3 teammates ahead of him at the moment when he releases his passes, showing that, in addition to his goalscoring, he is hugely important in the final stretch of his team’s build-up play. He also averages 2.3 opponents ahead of him at the moment of regaining possession, playing a decisive role in Real Madrid’s moves after winning the ball back. Karim Benzema is the driving force of Los Blancos' attack. He is a true leader and will try to guide his teammates to victory at the Camp Nou on Sunday.

Share

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.