Modeling Players’ Scanning Activity in Football

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and test models of scanning activity in football. Gibson’s ecological approach of visual perception and exploratory activity provided the theoretical framework for the models. The video-based data analysis consisted of 17 selected matches and 239 players of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) U17 and U19 European Championship 2018 and the UEFA U17 and U21 European Championship 2019. The results showed a positive relation between scanning frequency and successful passes, as well as changes in body orientation. Scanning frequency was also related to a player’s appearances in national teams and to opponent pressure. Opponent pressure had a large effect on pass result and the player’s body orientation. Previous research on the relation between scanning frequency and performance was extended by several contextual predictors. Future research should focus on gaining a deeper understanding of the relation between scanning frequency and further contextual variables related to scanning.

Head movement direction in football - a field study on visual scanning activity during the UEFA-U17 and -U21 European Championship 2019

“…Against the background of the high spatio-temporal demands in elite football, the opponent pressure when receiving the ball, has to be mentioned as an important contextual variable. Previous research has already shown the relevance of opponent pressure when analysing scanning (Aksum et al, 2021;Jordet et al, 2020;Pokolm et al, 2022).…”

“…Without visually perceiving affordances, meaning emerging player-specific action possibilities in the game context, a player would not be capable of guiding their action based on the perceived environment. Hence, perception and action presuppose each other in a cyclical manner (Gibson, 1979;Pokolm et al, 2022).…”

“…For football players, it is challenging to sufficiently scan the environment and pick up affordances, when the time before receiving the ball decreases . If the opponent pressure increases, the probability for successful passing decreases (Pokolm et al, 2022). stated that in situations with little time to explore, a lower number of scans is observable.…”

“…Based on the perceived surroundings and the action capabilities, football players execute their actions (Jordet et al, 2013). Football players who scan the surroundings more frequently than other players are under less pressure, their body is rather forwards oriented when receiving the ball and they have a higher pass completion rate (Jordet et al, 2013;Pokolm et al, 2022). Nevertheless, visually exploring the surroundings has long been an underrated performance indicator in football research.…”

“…The underestimated role can be explained due to scanning mainly taking place before a player receives the ball, meaning that the observer's focus is often on the current on-the ball-gameplay and the off-the ball-scanning is not considered sufficiently (Jordet et al, 2013). During the last years, a few field studies shed light on the relationship between scanning and performance-relevant contextual variables in football (Aksum et al, 2021;Jordet et al, 2020;Pokolm et al, 2022). These field studies focused on the analysis of football players' scanning frequency, but none of them yet considered the direction the analysed player was looking to.…”