Measuring the effectiveness and quantity of defensive pressure in football

The “high press” is a collective team defensive strategy which aims to reduce the opponent’s defensive players’ time and space when they have possession of the ball in their defensive third of the pitch. To measure this effectively player and ball movements need to be recorded multiple times per second and a complex algorithm developed. However, Trainor (2014) developed a proxy measure, passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA) which utilises only on the ball measures. PPDA was shown to be a reasonably valid indictor of defensive strategy in Study 1 with low values suggesting a team used a high press, usually by teams that dominated possession and tended to be the highest ranked teams in the English Premier League. The Korean KL1 league followed similar patterns to the EPL but the lowest PPDA teams were at the top, middle and bottom of the league. Study 2 therefore ranked teams using a K-means cluster analysis with Euclidean distancing based on the goals for and against to provide a data driven explanation for new ranking classes. PPDA values in the Bundesliga, LaLiga and the KL1 were lower when losing and higher when winning although when playing against the highest ranked teams in both the Bundesliga and LaLiga, teams’ PPDA values did not differ significantly when winning, drawing or losing, suggestive of an inability to dramatically change their playing style against a superior opponent. Study 3 showed that when PPDA values were classified into different PPDA clusters 59.3% of match periods, defined by match status, in the Bundesliga (83.4% in LaLiga) involved both teams employing a high press defensive strategy. Future research should consider whether defensive team metrics such as PPDA, xG against and ball regains can be modelled together to better define defensive playing strategy.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

PhD thesis

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Middlesex University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Kim, B.

Identifier

oai:repository.mdx.ac.uk:27z10x

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.mdx.ac.uk:27z10x