Tag: Data Analysis

Replacing Conor Gallagher at Crystal Palace

by Rhys Desmond, posted in Attacking Midfield, Central Midfield, Data Analysis, Most Recent, Player Analysis, Premier League, Recruitment & Scouting

Out of all the midfielders in the Premier League, very few stand out when it comes to as many attributes as Conor Gallagher. The Chelsea loanee has been on fire all season long at Crystal Palace - bagging 8 goals with 3 assists in 33 matches, alongside some of the best pressing and tackling numbers of players in his position. With his late arriving goal-scoring form and top-tier pressing intensity, Thomas Tuchel and Chelsea are bound to steal Gallagher back into their team, and give him regular minutes next season. A quintessential box-to-box midfielder who can also dovetail as a number ten, Gallagher will be a massive miss for the Eagles next season. So with that, we examine who could possibly come in to replace the 22-year-old midfielder at Crystal Palace next season.

Picking the 2021-22 PFA Team of the Year

by Rhys Desmond, posted in Most Recent, Premier League

It's that time of year! In this week's Tactical Thinker, we asked you to name your PFA Team of the Year, as though you were one of the pros making the difficult selection. After a countless number of responses, we compile the top eleven players as voted by our own stack of pros - you, the readers. Here is our PFA Team of the Year, from the TMS community.

Explaining the Defensive Fullback – Player Role Analysis

by Rhys Desmond, posted in Coach Education, Data Analysis, Fullback, German Bundesliga, Masterclasses, Most Recent, Player Analysis, Player Education, Premier League, Recruitment & Scouting

A 'Wide Warrior' is a full-back who hasn't quite kept up with the modern trends associated with their position. Rather than relying on attacking threat and potency to make their name, the 'Wide Warrior' continues to be an ever-present at the back, doing their best work closer to goal. They excel at the defensive side of the game above all else, even if they may offer certain advantages going forward (like a wing-back), or in half-spaces (like an inverted fullback). Further, not only do they excel at the defensive side of the game, their manager has made clear intentions for that to be the most important facet of their role within the team, restricting their attacking height.

Explaining the Sweeper Keeper – Player Role Analysis

by Rhys Desmond, posted in Coach Education, Data Analysis, Goalkeeper, Masterclasses, Most Recent, Player Analysis, Player Education, Premier League

The 'Sweeper Keeper' came to deserved acclaim at the 2014 World Cup, when Manuel Neuer showcased his ability to rush out of his goal, and "sweep" in behind Germany's high-line, almost playing like another centre-back out of possession. Since then, the role of the sweeper keeper has only grown and evolved, becoming a player who is capable in build-up phases, ventures out of their goal to involve themselves in passing sequences higher up the pitch, and completely commands their penalty area by coming off their line and taking control of any situation.

Finding the next Jamie Vardy – Tactical Analysis

by Charlie Ellis, posted in Data Analysis, Most Recent, Player Analysis, Premier League, Recruitment & Scouting, Striker

A truly iconic forward, not to mention incredibly unique in his career path, personality and play style, Jamie Vardy has been instrumental to Leicester's years of success. Now that Leicester have the finances to spend more than the notorious £1m steal spent on Vardy, there are a vast array of options within the transfer market for the Foxes to make their best attempt at recreating his legacy in the Premier League. So with that, we make strides toward helping Leicester in that complicated cause.

Tactical Thinker: Picking the PFA Team of the Year

by Rhys Desmond, posted in Most Recent, Premier League

This past weekend, Mohamed Salah claimed the Football Writers' Association Player of the Year, with more individual awards soon to follow. Individual awards are fraught with controversy within a team sport that relies on all eleven players working in tandem, and sometimes fail to acknowledge those that didn't do the flashy bits on a football pitch, but performed like their lives depended on it week in and week out. On both accounts, that's what often makes the Team of the Year an intriguing award to follow. When it comes to the PFA Team of the Year, it becomes all the more fascinating to see who the pros themselves had the most difficult time playing against this season, and who they felt deserved to be remembered for their role in making the 2021-22 season special. So with that, we ask you to pick your PFA Team of the Year, if you were one of the pros.

Why patterns and context are so essential to analysis in football

by Rhys Desmond, posted in Canadian Premier League, Data Analysis, Match Analysis, Most Recent, Player Analysis

If you're reading this article, chances are you love to analyze football. So allow me to help with your love for analysis with this call to action. Stop taking information from single-match occurrences, or single-match statistics, even statistics over time on their own, as a mechanism for making inferences about the wider context at hand. Recognizing patterns over time, and the wider context behind those patterns, are the essentials behind analysis in football, allowing you to more accurately assess performance, and improve upon performance problems.

Explaining the Shot Stopper – Player Role Analysis

by Rhys Desmond, posted in Canadian Premier League, Coach Education, Data Analysis, Goalkeeper, Masterclasses, Most Recent, Player Analysis, Player Education, Premier League

While formations may exclude the never-changing goalkeepers from their numbering, we could never fail to recognize the importance of goalkeeping in the game. As a result, we start with one of the most scrutinized positions on a football pitch - that of the keeper. We break goalkeepers down into two broad categories - 'Shot Stopper', and 'Sweeper Keeper'. We can then use these classifications to help distinguish between different types of players, and measure accordingly. Today's article is all about the 'Shot Stopper', defining role expectations and answering the soon to be common question of - 'What exactly is a shot stopper?'