Positional Data in Football
Positional Data in Football
POSITIONAL DATA IN
FOOTBALL PERFORMANCE
ANALYSIS
Vila Real, 2015
INDEX
Positional Data in Football- A Short Review ....................................................... 3
Football as a complex dynamical system ........................................................... 4
Technological Advances .................................................................................... 7
Measuring Tactical Performance ........................................................................ 9
Physical Measuring through Positional Data .................................................... 18
Technical measuring ........................................................................................ 20
Conclusion........................................................................................................ 22
REFERENCES ................................................................................................. 22
Team centre
The stretch index is calculated by computing the average radial distance of all
players to their teams centroid. It can also be calculated according to the axis
expansion, providing distinct measures of dispersion in longitudinal and lateral
Team Synchrony
Several tools have been used to assess coordination between two
oscillatory units (e.g., the coupling of two centroids, or the phase relations of
two players in a dyad). For instance, the phase synchronization of two signals
has been previously studied in team sports through relative phase analysis
Technological Advances
Since the last decade of 20th century and the beginning of this century, the
world is assisting constantly to changes and developments in the technological
area. Sports in general and particularly football, as a global business have
taken advantage of these devices who allow capturing and processing data
from the games and training sessions, in real time. Position data of players and
athletes are widely used in sports performance analysis for measuring the
amounts of physical activities as well as for tactical assessments in game
sports. These technological advances are mostly based in GPS units, radio
frequency systems or semi-automated video tracking systems.
GPS system permits measurement of player position, velocity, and
movement patterns. The receivers worn by players during training and
competition draw on signals sent from at least four of the earth orbiting satellites
used in the GPS to locate their position. Also, provides scope for better
understanding of the specific and positional physiological demands of team
sport and can be used to design training programs that adequately prepare
athletes for competition with the aim of optimizing on-field performance
(Cummins et. al, 2013). A study of Cummins and colleagues, conducted a
systematic review of the depth and scope of reported GPS and micro
technology measures used within individual sports in order to present the
contemporary and emerging themes of GPS application within team sports.
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As
shown before, its possible now to measure the tactical performance of a team
and its players interactions during the game, using their positioning data.
Recent studies have focused their analyses in the: intra/inter team/player
interactions and to the density of relations established. This density can be
between two players (dyad), a small group of players (group, normally inside of
a team sector) or the relations of the whole team. Thus, we can analyse and
describe players and team performance from different levels of interactions
(micro, meso and macro).
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In other study developed this time in futsal games, L. Vilar et al. (2014) explored
the coordination patterns of attackers and defenders respecting key task
constraints on performance (e.g. locations of the goal and the ball), that enable
the creation/prevention of opportunities to score goals during team sports.
Distinctive patterns of movement coordination between a shooter, a closest
defender and the location of the ball were identified that managed to the
creation/prevention of opportunities to score goals. These required relationships
of an attacker with the defender and the goal were also shown to emerge before
an assisting player received the ball to create a shooting opportunity. Moreover,
results suggested that, even when the defender was not able to intercept the
balls trajectory, he might have constrained an attacker to shoot earlier than he
needed to, providing the goalkeeper with possible conditions to intercept the
shot at goal.
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There are some studies made in the macro level, where the interactions
between player-team and team-team are described, concerning new insights in
football tactical behaviour.
For instance, Duarte and colleagues (2012) investigated changes in the
complexity (magnitude and structure of variability) of the collective behaviours
of association football teams during competitive performance. By using a
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Technical measuring
There are also some studies from researchers, trying to describe and
analyse the players technical behaviour, during elite football matches. For
example, Rampinini et. al (2007), examined the changes in technical and
physical performance between the first and second half during official matches
of Italian Serie A league and compared the technical and physical performance
of the players of the more successful teams (ranked in the first 5 positions) with
the players of the less successful teams (ranked in the last 5 positions) from the
same league. By measuring the total distance covered, high intensity running
distance, very high-intensity running distance, total distance with the ball, high20
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Conclusion
As we could see, positional data appears to be a new important and relevant
tool to understand teams tactical behaviour. Coaches and football players have
now one more way to improve their training method, by monitoring it in real
time. Also, positional data can be captured during official competitions, which
allow to coach staffs analyse their game performance.
REFERENCES
Leser , R., Arnold, B., & Ogris, G. (2011). Local Positioning Systems in (Game)
Sports. Sensors 11, 9778-9797.
Aguiar, M., Gonalves , B., Botelho, G., Lemmink, K., & Sampaio, J. (2015).
Footballers movement behaviour during 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-a-side small
sided games. Journal of Sports Sciences, 33:12, 1259-1266.
Araujo, D., Davids, K., & Silva, P. (n.d.). Capturing group tactical behaviour in
expert team players.
Borbousson, J., Seve Carole, & Mcgarry, T. (2010). Spacetime coordination
dynamics in basketball: Part 1. Intra- and inter-couplings among player
dyads. Journal of Sports Sciences, 28:3, 339-347,.
Cummins, C., Orr, R., & O'conor, E. (2013). Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
and Microtechnology Sensors in Team Sports: A Systematic Review.
Sports Med 43, 10251042.
Di Salvo, V., Collins, A., Barry, M., & Cardinalli, M. (n.d.). Validation of Prozone:
A new video-based performance analysis system.
Duarte, R., Araujo, D., Correia, V., Davids, K., Marques , P., & Richardson, M.
(2013). Competing together: Assessing the dynamics of teamteam and
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