Trying to visualise playing styles across matches and seasons is something few have managed well. For one thing they keep trying to do it with charts and graphs when football people understand and care little for anything outside of a football pitch. So trying to put the data back o the pitch was something I've been prioritising from day one. Now that vide coding is here, I can try stuff out without the need for a separate R&D dev team. And so here are a few concepts I've been playing with recently.
Team actions - match level
2022 World Cup Final - Argentina vs France
The defining actions each team did in a match, where on the pitch they did it and how well they did them. An attempt to show which team control what at a glance.
Team actions - season overview
Barcelona seasons - 2018-19 / 2019-20 / 2020-21
As above but for a full season. An attempt to show at a glance how a team plays and how well they do it.
Threat networks - Season overview
Winning seasons - PSG 2022/23 / Barcelona 2020/21 / Bayer Leverkusen 2023/24
Traces the passing networks of high quality attacks, showing who feeds whom and who finishes. An attempt to find the spine/s of a team.
Flow of play - match level
2022 World Cup Final - Argentina vs France
An at-a-glance view of where and when each team progressed the ball. How freely they played, and how the game ebbed and flowed between the two sides. More of a bit of fun, this one, but it shows the blockages and gives you a sense of which team had the upper hand, and where on the pitch they found success.