Comparing English Premier League Goalkeepers: Identifying the Pitch Actions that Differentiate the Best from the Rest

Abstract

The Opta Index is a prestigious performance measure used to assess English Premier League (EPL) football players. Although the Opta model is proprietary, the general structure uses a multiattribute collection of subjectively weighted pitch measures that either rewards or penalizes a player with a potential range of points based on the quality of his game performance. In addition, the specific set of measures used depends upon player position: forwards, midfielders, defenders, and goalkeepers each have their own unique set of measures even though there might be some overlap. Although the player's Opta Index is calculated for each game, it is the cumulative "grade card"-the final Opta Index calculated at the end of the thirty-eight game EPL season in May-that is of particular importance. The index, along with the large array of player pitch data, is commercially distributed to the EPL clubs and appears in a wide variety of television and print media outlets. This paper proposes an alternative to using the full set of Opta data by identifying those specific pitch actions that form a statistically significant retrodictive linear regression model for the 2007-2008 EPL season. Additionally, the importance of evaluating pitch actions historically assumed to be clearly pertinent measures-such as goals allowed per game for the goalkeeper-will be not only be appraised from a statistical viewpoint, but also from a practical perspective.

Anàlisi de l’eficàcia del porter de futbol cadet (14 a 16 anys) [Analysis of the Effectiveness of Under-16 Football Goalkeepers]

“…Papers analyzing goalkeepers' performance have been published to a lesser extent. In addition, the studies carried out in this field focus on top-level goalkeepers (Gil, 2008;Lawlor et al, 2002;Oberstone, 2010;Rodríguez, Ortega, & Sainz de Baranda, 2006;Sainz de Baranda & Ortega, 2002;Sainz de Baranda, Ortega, & Palao, 2008) with little scientific output investigating youth football goalkeepers (Sainz de Baranda, Ortega, Llopis, Novo, & Rodríguez, 2005).…”

“…En menor medida se encuentran trabajos relativos al análisis del juego del portero. Además, los estudios realizados en este ámbito se centran en el portero de élite (Gil, 2008;Lawlor et al, 2002;Oberstone, 2010;Rodríguez, Ortega, & Sainz de Baranda, 2006;Sainz de Baranda & Ortega, 2002;Sainz de Baranda, Ortega, & Palao, 2008), siendo escasa la producción científica cuyo objeto de estudio es el portero de fútbol base (Sainz de Baranda, Ortega, Llopis, Novo, & Rodríguez, 2005).…”

Relationship Between the Presence of the Goalkeeper and the Pedagogic Variables that Define the Football Tasks. A Case Study

“…En la literatura científica, los estudios técnico-científicos sobre el portero de fútbol son escasos y los que existen analizan aspectos muy concretos, como las lesiones deportivas (Hägglund et al, 2013;Pidemunt et al, 2012;Putukian, 2004), sus factores psicológicos ante lanzamientos de penalti (Furley et al, 2016;Lidor et al, 2012;Navarro et al, 2013), la eficacia de su comportamiento técnico-táctico (Lapresa et al, 2018), perfiles fisiológicos (Di Salvo et al, 2008;Montesano, 2016) o sus factores perceptivos y de control motor (Dicks et al, 2011;Gegenfurtner et al, 2011). Además, se encuentran trabajos relativos al análisis del juego del portero de élite (Oberstone, 2010;Sainz de Baranda et al, 2008), pero es escasa la producción científica cuyo objeto de estudio sea el portero de fútbol-base (Lapresa et al, 2018;Sainz de Baranda et al, 2005) y aun menores, las investigaciones relacionadas con el diseño de las tareas de entrenamiento (Ortega-Toro y Sainz de Baranda, 2003).…”

The Validity and Reliability of Live Football Match Statistics From Champdas Master Match Analysis System

“…And as a result, performance directors, coaches and researchers frequently utilize these systems to gain insights into football match performance. Concurrently, the accuracy and reliability of some widely used systems from various commercial football match statistics providers have been validated and verified, such as AMISCO ® system (Carling et al, 2008; Zubillaga et al, 2009; Lago et al, 2010; Dellal et al, 2011; Castellano et al, 2014), PROZONE Sports Ltd. ® (Bradley et al, 2007, 2011; Castellano et al, 2014), SportsCode (Hughes, 2004; Reed and Hughes, 2006; O’Donoghue and Holmes, 2014), OPTA Sportsdata (Oberstone, 2009, 2010, 2011; Liu et al, 2013), SICS (Rampinini et al, 2009; Osgnach et al, 2010; Beato and Jamil, 2017), Dartfish (Eltoukhy et al, 2012; Padulo et al, 2015; Larkin et al, 2016; Li et al, 2016), and Nacsports (Clear et al, 2017). Indeed, these systems have presented both coder-friendly operating platform and high reliability in measuring technical-tactical performance indicators.…”