Performance analysis

More specifically this manuscript will discuss performance indicators in football from a scientific point of view.

Statistics in football/performance analysis seemed to be present for a long time, ~40 years (82). While paper and pencils was used in earlier days, software solutions like ProZone allow a more in-depth analysis of football games.

A performance indicator is a selection, or combination, of action variables that aims to define some aspects of a performance in a given sport and, these performance indicators, should relate to successful performance or outcome (17, 43).

Utilizing this definition it seems necessary to define “action variables”, which we have therefore categorized these actions into physical/physiological, technical, tactical and others parameter and will discuss them individually.

Physical capacity of players was commonly believed to be a key factor in match performance.

Non-successful teams:
- covered greater distance in high-speed movement activity (13)
- had higher total distance without ball possession (111)

While successful teams:
- covered greater distance in high-speed movement activity (115),
- sprinting (115)
- total distance (69)
- total distance without ball possession (115)

Furthermore, positional specific physical/physiological parameters such as distance covered were different whilst winning or losing (3). For example, full-backs and central defenders covered shorter distances in won-matches.

Non-significant differences were seen in body composition (56). However there were also significant differences between players from successful compared to unsuccessful teams. Differences were seen in strength and power (7, 20, 24, 109) measures such as countermovement jump, leg extension etc.

Further information stated that improved physical capacity of players influence technical ability (87), namely increased pass rates and therefore might indirectly improve performance indicators (39). Studies in England (25) and Italy (79) have reported an association between physical output and final league ranking (13). More specifically, match activity such as high-speed running in relation to league position at the end of the playing season have been used to provide an indication of the extent to which physical performance can influence the ‘success’ of teams. However, total run distance was not associated with the final result (45).

It seems obvious that the physical capacity needs to be the foundation for “being ready to play” – as different playing style will have influence on the physical demands on the players (11).

Being “fit” or ready to play also suggest that injuries will have an impact in performance and it was shown that successful teams had significant less injuries compared to non-successful team (7).

It seems evident that “fit” players can cover greater distance if needed, disregarding of level of play. For example, researchers (12) suggested that distance covered at high intensity are more valid measure of physical performance in soccer because of their strong relationship with training status (50, 51) or level of play (70).

However, total distance covered was not linked to success in soccer (18) as more successful teams showed lower values. High-speed zones were a significant parameter in which the top 4 teams showed the greatest values.

Similar to the physical/physiological parameters, technical elements are very important in football and most of the time these parameters (such as shots on goal…) are very easy to measure reliably. This kind of analysis is called notational analysis (35).

It seems obvious that there is a link between number of goals scored, and more importantly number of goals conceded (12) and success in football. However, the relationship seems not so clear with regards to other parameters such as shots on goal and passes completed (and others) and the final result of a game. In accordance to Hughes and Bartlett (35) we have divided into passes, tackles and shots.

Passes
Number of passes
Overall number of passes (76), pass attempts during net playing time (76) and overall number of correct passes were figured as important factors in achieving better results (37, 49). Longer passing sequences are a more efficient way of scoring goals compared to shorter passing sequences in elite Australian football (38).

Types of passes
Types of passes were not seen as a performance indicator (37, 77, 79). However, Successful teams were able to execute a wider variety of passes as a tool to create shots, making them less predictable and being able to shoot more frequently (33). Crosses and chips were used more significantly by successful teams compared to unsuccessful teams (33).

Passes into specific areas
Penetrative passes into the box and the 6 yard area seemed to increase the number of shots on goal and consequently number of goals (30) offensively. Interestingly, unsuccessful teams tended to play significantly more passes in(to) the pre-defensive area (77).

Pass accuracy
There is not doubt that pass accuracy is an important performance indicator in football in general. For example it was shown that the pass accuracy was significant higher 5 minutes before scoring (67). Pass accuracy not only retains possession, but may also lead to scoring opportunities while also restricting possessions and scoring opportunities of the opposition (67).

Pass to opposition/interceptions
There seemed to be no evidence about pass to opposition/interception as performance indicator. It seems not clear if the interception are a consequence of the inability to pass accurately or good movement from the opponent (or a combination of both) (60). However, we believe everyone can agree that low number of opposition and high number of interception might help to succeed in the game.

Tackles won/lost
Limited research is available for tackles won/lost in connection with performance in football. Interestingly, it is not reported that number of successful tackles links to success, however the number of tackles and the total fouls discriminated between top tiers and lower ranked teams (62). Additionally, a low number of successful tackles defensively may have contributed to a high number of conceding goals (60).

Shots on/off target
Disregarding success, home teams have 26% more shots, however the success rates for the shots do not differ from away teams (80). Successful teams have a greater number of shots (13, 50), shots on target (13, 50), but more importantly a better rate for number of shots per goal (24, 50) offensively, but also a lower rate of shots and shots on their own goal (13).

Furthermore, the area/zone of scoring attempt were also presented: The penalty area (44.4%), goal area (32.2%) and outside the box (20.4%) were chosen for goals (96), however 90% of all goals was scored inside the penalty area for the 1986 World Cup (63), whilst it was 80% for the World Cup 1990 and 81.8% for goal scoring attempts appeared in the penalty area for Greek domestic football (82, 95).

Similar to the physical/physiological parameters, technical elements are very important in football and most of the time these parameters (such as shots on goal…) are very easy to measure reliably. This kind of analysis is called notational analysis (43).

It seems obvious that there is a link between number of goals scored, and more importantly number of goals conceded (15) and success in football. However, the relationship seems not so clear with regards to other parameters such as shots on goal and passes completed (and others) and the final result of a game. In accordance to Hughes and Bartlett (43) we have divided into passes, tackles and shots.

Passes
Number of passes
Overall number of passes (89), pass attempts during net playing time (89) and overall number of correct passes were figured as important factors in achieving better results (49)(45). Longer passing sequences are a more efficient way of scoring goals compared to shorter passing sequences in elite Australian football (46).

Types of passes
Types of passes were not seen as a performance indicator (45, 90, 92). However, Successful teams were able to execute a wider variety of passes as a tool to create shots, making them less predictable and being able to shoot more frequently (41). Crosses and chips were used more significantly by successful teams compared to unsuccessful teams (41).

Passes into specific areas
Penetrative passes into the box and the 6 yard area seemed to increase the number of shots on goal and consequently number of goals (37) offensively. Successful teams showed a greater number of entry passes in the final 1/3 of the field and the Penalty Area (111). Interestingly, unsuccessful teams tended to play significantly more passes the pre-defensive area (90).

Pass accuracy
There is not doubt that pass accuracy is an important performance indicator in football in general. For example it was shown that the pass accuracy was significant higher 5 minutes before scoring (80). Pass accuracy not only retains possession, but may also lead to scoring opportunities while also restricting possessions and scoring opportunities of the opposition (80).

Pass to opposition/interceptions
There seemed to be no evidence about pass to opposition/interception as performance indicator. It seems not clear if the interception are a consequence of the inability to pass accurately or good movement from the opponent (or a combination of both) (71). However, I believe everyone can agree that low number of opposition and high number of interception might help to succeed in the game.

Tackles won/lost
Limited research is available for tackles won/lost in connection with performance in football. Interestingly, it is not reported that number of successful tackles links to success, however the number of tackles and the total fouls discriminated between top tiers and lower ranked teams (74). Additionally, a low number of successful tackles defensively may have contributed to a high number of conceding goals (71).

Shots on/off target
Disregarding success, home teams have 26% more shots, however the success rates for the shots do not differ from away teams (93). Successful teams have a greater number of shots (16, 59, 114, 115), shots on target (16, 59, 114), but more importantly a better rate for number of shots per goal (29, 59) offensively, but also a lower rate of shots and shots on their own goal (16).

Furthermore, the area/zone of scoring attempt were also presented: The penalty area (44.4%), goal area (32.2%) and outside the box (20.4%) were chosen for goals (112), however 90% of all goals was scored inside the penalty area for the 1986 World Cup (75), whilst it was 80% for the World Cup 1990 and 81.8% for goal scoring attempts appeared in the penalty area for Greek domestic football (95, 110).

Combined factors
Technical efficacy (utilizing passes) showed a higher likelihood of winning (31).

Ball possession
Generally, ball possession seemed to influenced by situational variables (57) as well as vise versa (23). As a result, the variable was influenced by the game status (winning and drawing), match location (home teams have greater possession than away teams) and quality of opponent (less possession against “good” teams -(57)). Accordingly, ball possession itself resulted in more time spend in offensive areas of the pitch and lower total distance covered (23). Interestingly, teams with a 4-2-3-1 formation showed more ball possession (4)

Despite the mentioned, it was thought that ball possession is of central importance to success in football, however questions remain about its impact on positive team outcomes (19).  It seems that in domestic play, ball possession is an important performance indicator (-especially in England, Spain and China) (52, 54, 57, 99).

However, ball possession was not a good performance indicator (4) even more when opponent quality and home advantage was accounted for (19).

Nonetheless, successful teams had more possession in general (16, 21, 41, 45, 47, 49, 57, 81, 111), however, also when a) winning and drawing (83) or even when losing or drawing (19), compared to unsuccessful teams. There was not difference between successful and non-successful teams for ball possession when winning (44).

Ball possession in a certain are of the pitch
Ball possession in certain area of the pitch seems to be influenced by the score line (85), showing less ball possession for the scoring team in the attacking and middle thirds compared to the average for the half (85). On the contraire, the conceding team significantly increased its possession in the middle and attacking third and decreased the possession in its own defensive third. Furthermore, pre-goal possession showed that the scoring team had significant more possession in the middle and attacking third (85).

Zone 14 also seemed to have a crucial role in football, more specifically, ball possession (and also its effective usage) (84).

Interestingly, unsuccessful teams played more passes in the pre-defensive area (before the half-way line) (91) while higher ranked teams exhibited a significantly greater amount of possession in opponent’s half (111, 114).

Ball possession as a sequence
Research (42, 76) investigated the number of passes that led to goals scored in two FIFA World Cup finals or English football. It seemed as there were more goals scored from longer passing sequences than from shorter passing sequences (42).  Longer possession resulted in more shots per possession; however, the strike ratio of goals from shots was better for “direct play” compared to “possession play”. In contrast, successful teams scored more often from longer possession (compared to short(er)) possession (42).

Possession lengths of 3 to 7 passes (71) and under 4 (76) seemed more likely to produce goals.

Attacking third entries
Attacking third entries was mentioned to be a performance indicator discriminating successful from unsuccessful teams (83) and higher from lower ranked teams (111).

As a clarification, we will not discuss individual tactics despite its importance on the group efficacy (48).

Despite hard to quantify, it seems evident that the tactical ability, the formation and the playing style play a role as performance indicators. For example, playing against lower or higher ranked teams might alter the vertical but also the horizontal displacement of the players (32). Ultimately this would alter the ability to intercept opponent passes and subsequent fast counter-attack, which was also considered as key sports behaviors (67).

Therefore, the following paragraphs will focus not only on tactical behavior (such as ball possession above) but also on how these tactical parameters are achieved.

The so-called game modeling has been used (62, 68) to detect game patterns distinguishing successful from non-successful teams (35). In another investigation it was thought that local player numerical dominance is key to defensive stability and offensive opportunity (106).

We have sort them into offensive and defensive patterns, but also highlighting the transitional phase (and pressing).

Offensively
Team offensive play in sequences ending in a shot on goal are influenced by situational variables (such as numerical relationship between attack and defense players) (77).

However, offensive actions play a key role in football. More specifically, organized offence presented the highest frequency in goal scoring, followed by set pieces (35.6%) and counterattacks (20.3%) (112). Furthermore, 80% of goals scored after short duration attacks, and players touched the ball a maximum of 3 (36) or 4 (42) times.  

As many shots (on goal)/goals are performed from the area directly in front of the penalty area (zone 14) as well as many assists derived from that zone (40), it seems logical to penetrate that zone as much as possible in and/or to enter the final third (83). 64% of possessions within that zone derived from ball possession of between 0.5-2.5 seconds (40). 46% of off-target attempts from zone 14 were from possessions of just one second (83). However, it was also reported that not the amount of possession, but its effective usage/conversion distinguished between successful and non-successful teams (83).

Obviously crosses are also effective to increase shots on goal (49) as mentioned above 90% of all goals was scored inside the penalty area for the 1986 World Cup (75), whilst it was 80% for the World Cup 1990 and 81.8% for goal scoring attempts appeared in the penalty area for Greek domestic football (95, 110).
A mixture of short and long passes seems to be a promising way to build up attacks and furthermore scoring from short and long distances increases complexity of defending. Especially short passes seemed to be reliable in keeping ball possession (74).

Transition
Transition seems to be of high importance in football (105) as the team that just lost the ball is in a (more or less) unorganized/variable situation which was proven to have significant effect on conceding goals (33, 101).

Pressure applied to players having the ball seemed to be crucial in the mid-offensive zone, as these actions preceded “successful finishing” (83), defined as shots on target (64) The goals scored were mainly preceded by behaviors in zones near the opposite goal. Pressing was seen as a key index in/around the box and in general pressed player are less affected and therefore less dangerous (97).

Defensively, recovery of the ball was seen as a performance indicator (8, 108) with top teams recovering the ball faster (108).

Defensively
It appears that individual defense's ability of teams to control the opposing team's movements will greatly affects on success in Football (30).

A scientific measure was the longitudinal and lateral inter-team distances, centroid position, and the area of the team span on the pitch (33).

Additional thoughts
There seems to be also another type of research in analyzing performance, which in this case also discusses tactical ability. The so-called “Ecological dynamics” display self-organizing systems and therefore critique the notational systems. The results in this research (107) states how attackers try to break symmetry with their nearest opponents, as defenders seek to maintain system symmetry by remaining between their own goal and the immediate attacker.

Individuals influence tactical ability/performance of a team. As a result, research constructed “ball flow” to investigate the importance of individuals in a team structure and seems able to demonstrate that flow centrality provide a powerful objective quantification of individual and further team performance (28).

Performance seems to be a very specific index that is influenced by many variables and therefore should be considered in that context.

I also want to state that the factors interfere with each other and therefore some limitations will be present with regards to given references. For example an interesting study investigated the effects of situational variables, which are match location, scoring first, and quality of opposition all of them simultaneously when considering the minute of the first goal and the competition stage in the UEFA Champions League (34)

Opponent (Successful vs. non-successful teams regarding final latter ranking)
The opponent will have great influence on performance indicators (27, 32, 54, 77, 115) and game outcome (34, 58). Obviously, the magnitude of influence needs to be considered with regards to your own team’s ability and the opponent. Therefore, many research has investigated with regards to final league standing and as a consequences distinguished between successful and non-successful teams. Successful teams were significant different compared non-successful teams in:

    •    Goals (10, 55)
    •    Shots on goal (55, 77, 115)
    •    Shots for a goal (55)
    •    Possession in general (54)
    •    Position characteristics (such as counterattack) (102)
    •    Possession with 0-4 passes (102)
    •    Successful passes (81)
    •    Efficacy of shots on goals (ratio of goals per shots) (96)

Furthermore it was distinguished between successful and non-successful teams taking other variables (such as score-line) into account that influence performance indicators.

Especially ball possession seemed to be discussed in this context, revealing some conflicting results. Generally, The successful teams had longer possessions than unsuccessful teams when winning and drawing (47, 83) and no difference were seen when losing. However, successful teams were also observed having longer ball possessions in general (44, 54). Interestingly, unsuccessful teams had lower ball possession when winning compared to loosing (83) however both successful and unsuccessful teams had longer durations of possession when they were losing matches compared to when winning (47).

Successful teams preferred using a pass into the final third compared with unsuccessful teams, who used aerial passes pre-dominantly (83) and were also more efficient than their opponents at scoring from set-plays (110).

Score line - Winning vs. drawing vs. losing
Obviously, scoring more then the opponent equals the ultimate performance indicator (17, 110). Especially scoring first was seen as a strong impact on final outcome (5, 34, 58).

However, it was also reported that the score line (if your team is winning or losing) influence performance indicator such as ball possession or distance covered (52, 53, 100) especially when teams are coming back from a goal difference (38).

When loosing, the teams showed the tendency to improve ball possession in mid offensive zones (9). When winning, teams frequently performed defence/attack transition behaviors to get closer to the opponent goal (9). While drawing, teams tended to vary the offensive methods to score a goal (9). The most frequent position to shoot was the center position.

Winning teams showed different profiles from drawing and losing teams in terms of recovering the ball in their own half (center area), using penetrative passes into the opponents box (37) and ball possession and passing accuracy (38).

“Funny” information seemed to be that clubs with a high budget favor ball-possession disregarding score line (60).

Match location (home vs. away)
I guess everyone has experienced “home advantage” in some stage in his career (27, 37, 93). Playing at home was seen as a factor impacting game results (34).

The home team created significant more possession (52, 54), greater number of turnovers and crosses  (37, 104), corners, passes and shots in the attacking third and in general exhibited more behaviors linked with success such as won tackles, passes completed and won aerial challenges (104). The home team also covered more distance in low-intensity activities (53) and is more likely to score first (34).

If the home team scores first it is more likely to keep the points compared to when the away team scores first (58).

Type of competition (League vs. knock-out system)
There is limited evidence of the type of competition on performance indicators. However, from coaching experience it seems warranted that one of the best teams will win a league (with consist performance over a long(er) period of time), while during a knock-out stage (like in national cups or international tournaments) it seems that the team with suppose to have lower performance also have a chance to win. Research (34, 61) stated for knockout stages the role of performance indicators, is less important, compared to groups stage. There were no statistically significant differences in the performance obtained by winners and losers (61). However, other research (94) shows the importance of consistent performance over all games of a tournament.

Game period
It seemed that game period had an effect on performance parameters (6, 77). Game period had significant effects on the length of offensive actions, the distance covered (77) and more goals were scored as time progresses. The above could be explained by the deterioration in physical conditioning, the tactical play, fluid balance and lapses in concentration (6).

Other factors
In the following paragraphs we would like to list (additional) others factors that will influence performance and therefore its indicators.

Training (hours) experience
Experienced players circulated the ball more in SSG resulting in longer offensive sequences from the entire team, while the non-experienced participants performed faster offensive sequences with a predominance of individual actions (1).

Anthropometry
Body mass and muscle mass was related to the total distance covered (86). Moreover, players from successful teams were found to be leaner and more muscular than their unsuccessful counterparts (56).

Psychological factors
Psychological factors were not really discussed throughout the literature, however it was seen that emotional intelligence scores predict team sports performance in national cricket (22).  Emotional intelligence is involved in the capacity to perceive emotions, assimilate emotion-related feelings, understand the information of those emotions, and manage them (66). Emotional intelligence helps individual team members in order to deal with interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts, enhance communication and commitment, and to accomplish team goals (26). We speculate that emotional intelligence might be seen as a psychological factor in football performance as well.

Fatigue
There is only limited evidence about the effect of fatigue on performance indicators. Fatigue that players appear towards the end of a game, which consequently leads to goal scoring by the opponent team (113). Fatigue affected soccer skills (79, 88) in footballers. The assumption was that most likely pass accuracy is reduced and therefore ball possession and therefore the ability to control the match (and therefore performance).

Dismissal
Dismissals will have an effect on performance indicators (14). Players need to cover greater distance, have less recovery time between high-intensity efforts and have more activity, especially in the moderate-intensity level (14).

Set-pieces
Dead-ball situations can play a significant role in match outcome. For example up to ~36% of all goals scored happened through set-pieces (110, 112).

Not necessarily related to match outcome, however still interesting was the investigation by Pulling et al. (78), who investigated zonal vs. 1-on-1 marking in corners. The authors’ results showed no significant association between the marking set-up and the number of attempts at goal conceded when defending corner kicks. However, teams who applied zonal marking conceded fewer goals and fewer attempts at goal than teams who used one-to-one marking.

Who scores goals and when
Interestingly, in successful teams, 62% of the goals are scored by typical attacking players (41). Whereas in unsuccessful teams only 25% of the goals are scored by the same kind of players.

Time of scoring was seen to impact game outcome (58, 72).

Gender differences
There seemed to be gender differences in performance indicators. One factor seemed to be the physical/physiological differences, which might be responsible for successful long-range shots for example (2).  The women used more heading in general and females tried to get closer to the goal before trying to score (2).

Dribbling seemed to be the most important skill to creating scoring opportunities, followed by first touch, passing, and individual defense (103).

Crosses received inside the box and corner kicks revealed good goal scoring opportunities (65).  Individual tactics in womens football was observed by Konstadinidiou et al. 2005 - (49).

Performance (and therefore its indicators) needs to be considered with regards to several situational variables (such as quality of opponent, location of match, type of competition and game period).  In addition, first goal and in general score-line, dismissals will also have an effect. As a result, key performance index seemed to change during the game (27, 53, 100).

It seems that teams need to develop a specific performance index (such as how to enter the attacking third) for a specific opponent, at a specific location, in a specific type of competition. Furthermore, the performance index might be individual to specific positions as the technical (98) and physical (73) demands differ. For example, target strikers have different movements (amount and intensity), different technical skills (such as ball possession) compared to central midfielders. However, their shots on goal will be more crucial as they are usually positioned closer to the goal and therefore have greater chance to score.

Generally, efficacy seems to be a key players offensively (goals per shots) as well as defensively (gaining re-possession quickly) (63, 96). Ball possession (to us) seems to be important in controlling the game, however, not necessarily as an important performance indicator. As it seems having ball possession for a long time does not ensure goals scoring, however is very effective way to control the game when winning. Creating/cover spaces over large distance on the pitch offensively seems to create opportunities for individual players and therefore lowers chances for interceptions, however, simultaneously increase the demand and the complexity of re-organizing the defense when losing the ball.

As a result, counterattacking is a very effective way to win a game, especially for “lower-ranked” teams in certain situations (away games, less comfortable with ball possession etc).

Set pieces are very important and can decide about winning or loosing as well. Additionally, it seems warrant to scout the opponent and not only to research your own team (101).

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