Big data and tactical analysis in elite soccer: future challenges and opportunities for sports science

Abstract

Until recently tactical analysis in elite soccer were based on observational data using variables which discard most contextual information. Analyses of team tactics require however detailed data from various sources including technical skill, individual physiological performance, and team formations among others to represent the complex processes underlying team tactical behavior. Accordingly, little is known about how these different factors influence team tactical behavior in elite soccer. In parts, this has also been due to the lack of available data. Increasingly however, detailed game logs obtained through next-generation tracking technologies in addition to physiological training data collected through novel miniature sensor technologies have become available for research. This leads however to the opposite problem where the shear amount of data becomes an obstacle in itself as methodological guidelines as well as theoretical modelling of tactical decision making in team sports is lacking. The present paper discusses how big data and modern machine learning technologies may help to address these issues and aid in developing a theoretical model for tactical decision making in team sports. As experience from medical applications show, significant organizational obstacles regarding data governance and access to technologies must be overcome first. The present work discusses these issues with respect to tactical analyses in elite soccer and propose a technological stack which aims to introduce big data technologies into elite soccer research. The proposed approach could also serve as a guideline for other sports science domains as increasing data size is becoming a wide-spread phenomenon.

A Pilot Study on Offensive Success in Soccer Based on Space and Ball Control – Key Performance Indicators and Key to Understand Game Dynamics

“…Soccer is a complex game with a lot of technical and tactical facets (Rein & Memmert, 2016). Winning or losing a game often depends on small and often either hardly detectable details or complicated processes.…”

Current approaches to performance analysis in team sports. [Enfoques actuales para el análisis de rendimiento en deportes de equipo].

“…Additionally, performance analysis has tried to use new technologies in sport (i.e., GPS, tracking data, software, etc. ), sport analytics (i.e., statistical analysis models and big data), the importance of competition environment (e.g., situational variables) or the impact of gender (i.e., effect of sex on performance) in order to improve the information gathered and the analysis and findings derived from competition and trainings (Rein & Memmert, 2016). Therefore, actual performance analysis is a research area that covers a wide range of aspects of sport and is studied from a multifactorial approach that allow to develop the training processes and competition management.…”

“…Nowadays, performance analysis has evolved to a more specific research area that needs the use of performance indicators from a holistic perspective (Memmert, Lemmink, & Sampaio, 2017). According to Rein and Memmert (2016) the traditional studies of this area lacks of a high-order description about sports team dynamics (i.e., the use of a combination of physical, technical and tactical parameters under the competition complexity). Then, this approach would increase the validity and direct impact of the results for physical trainers, coaches or performance analysts.…”

“…One of the most recent approaches to tactics in sports is the use of positional and tactical metrics. Rein and Memmert (2016) described this issue a quite relevant when accounting for group-tactical parameters during competition. Accordingly, the study presented in this special issue allows identifying tactical behaviours according to the size of the pitch in soccer.…”

“…This interesting approach was done using GPS systems and the calculation of centroids and stretch index. As was previously argued, this study is focused on high-order interactions in soccer with a real impact for physical trainers and coaches due to the use of different task design (Rein & Memmert, 2016). The analysis of situational variables is one of the most relevant topics in performance analysis (Gómez, Lago, & Sampaio, 2013).…”