Some real heavy data lifting has been put into deriving our Non Shot expected goals model. So first a quick recap on what it does.
Whenever the ball is moved around the pitch there is a likelihood of scoring from each location it finds itself in. We express this value as non shot xG and the difference between these values when an action is completed is the change in NSxG via that action.
There's also a "risk/reward" aspect for when you concede possession.
Finally, each team has (nearly always) a different NSxG for the same pitch location, because one major input is the distance to your opponents goal.
We've mainly looked at passing and ball carrying, so far, quantifying the differing importance to your side of moving the ball five yards out of your own penalty area or five yards into your opponents. But there's an obvious extension of this that flips the focus and examines how well a team prevents an opponent progression the ball.
This isn't just by making passing difficult, it's also by making it harder or easier for opponents to carry the ball forward as well.
It used to be call closing a player down, it's called any manner of terms nowadays.
Here's how sides are fairing in preventing ball progression in 2019/20.
The first thing you need is a benchmark figure to measure how well a side is closing down the opposition.
There's only been nine matches played by each Premier League team to date and they may have played a bunch of sides who aren't that good or willing to play out from the back, so we need to find a set of figures that reflect this possible imbalance of intent and talent.
Let's take Manchester United. They've played nine teams, Chelsea, CP, Leicester, Newcastle, Southampton, WHU, Arsenal, Wolves & Liverpool.
Those teams, in turn have also played nine teams (except Arsenal, who play tonight), that's 80 teams of which nine are Manchester United.
That's almost guaranteed to include every Premier League team at least once and makes up a decent sample of around 70-80 games depending upon how you slice it.
We therefore, we took those 71 non Manchester United matches played by Manchester United's opponents and looked at the "risk/reward" ball progression via both passes and ball carries for 100 pitch segments.
For each segment we calculated the average NS xG gained (or lost) per 100 pass & carry attempts. That was our baseline for United's opponents progression against a broad selection of opponents this season.
Then we repeated the exercise, but for these sides in their matches against Manchester United and ran a heat map to see where on the field these teams were finding it difficult to progress the ball against United and where they were having a easier time compared to their benchmark numbers against the rest of their opponents.
This is what it looks like ( ignore the numbers for now).
The red areas are where United's opponents are progressing the ball at lower levels against United than they've managed as a group against a basket of 71 other Premier League sides. Blue, they're doing better.
It's a pretty stark and clear picture of where on the field United have been making it difficult for their opponents to get the ball into more dangerous areas. Firstly, beginning in front of their opponent's own box and then aggressively in front of United's own. They aren't too fussed about targeting wide positions on halfway and not too good(?) at stopping runs or passes from the bye-line & in the box.
Here's Everton and they do harry the opposition, but it's a much more chaotic process, with very little structure, especially compared to United's disciplined approach.
And finally, here's Aston Villa.
There's no overt closing down of the opposition until they reach the box, at which point it seems to become all hands to the pump.
No comments:
Post a Comment