Microsoft Excel: Inputting data + creating graphs and charts

Microsoft Excel is one of the most commonly used platforms in businesses around the world, particularly for inputting and analyzing data. As an analyst, it will become a useful tool for you to keep information in one place, and create stunning graphs and charts on the data you find. It's used so much so that most platforms you will find (FBRef, Wyscout, etc.) even have the ability for you to download their statistics for your own purposes on Excel. Let's jump into how to use this well-known platform to your benefit when conducting football analysis.

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Football analysis with FBRef

In the past year of football analysis, FBRef has become my favourite platform for collecting data, comparing players, and identifying hidden success stories. The website, powered by StatsBomb, is an awesomely free open-source platform for football statistics. In this article, as part of our Introduction to Football Analysis course, I'm going to be taking you through how to get the most out of FBRef, and how to use the well-known platform as a tool to strengthen your analysis. Let's dive in!

Evaluating players based on role continuity

What a player does on a football pitch from a pure on-the-ball event perspective, quantifies only a small percentage of their actual role or influence on a match. What a player does off the ball can often be the key to a good performance, allowing a player to enhance their on-the-ball metrics in the process. So this begs the question - how can you evaluate a player's performance if they weren't really all that involved in the action, but stuck to their specific role perfectly?

Why Dusan Vlahovic is perfect for Juventus

Toward the end of the January transfer window, Juventus swept in with a big money move for Dusan Vlahovic, finally securing themselves a Cristiano Ronaldo replacement. The big Serb has made a name for himself in Serie A with his stunning run of goal-scoring form, bagging 38 goals in 58 matches for Fiorentina across the past two seasons. But Vlahovic doesn't just offer a team goals, and that is precisely why Juventus worked so hard to secure his signature at the end of January, for a hefty €82 million fee. Here is why Dusan Vlahovic is perfect for The Old Lady, and an adequate replacement for one of the game's all time greats.

Analyzing Europe’s best ‘Progressive Pass Receivers’

Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post. But anyone who's read my analyses over the past few years will know that I'm a massive fan of the football data and statistics website FBRef. Powered by StatsBomb, FBRef is a free to use site with loads of data from footballing leagues around the world, including detailed scouting reports, a nifty 'Player Comparison Tool', and several practical statistics that can't be found anywhere else. So with that, today, I break down the underrated value of one of my favourite FBRef statistics - a lesser known thing called 'Progressive Passes Received.'

Analyzing the Premier League table based on Expected Points (xP)

The use of probability models in football to calculate Expected Goals, Expected Goals Conceded and Expected Points, have taken off to new heights in recent years - with more fans, coaches, managers and even players paying attention to these hypothetical numbers. Between statistical probability, the actual result, and the expectations for all that has been produced, we analyze how many points each team should have won in each match, based on Expected Points.

Analyzing Dortmund’s future centre-back options

Dortmund need to consider their centre-back options in the current market, and start planning for the future. We take a look at the very best defenders that could make for realistic and easy signings for the Black & Yellows to make this summer. Let's get into it.