@MaddockMirror Hey David, really appreciate the feedback mate.
It's an interesting question. One of the problems is there is no public facing data for pressure itself really out there. The clubs get this data (I believe from TRACAB) but it isn't in the public domain unlike Opta data.
It's an interesting question. One of the problems is there is no public facing data for pressure itself really out there. The clubs get this data (I believe from TRACAB) but it isn't in the public domain unlike Opta data.
@MaddockMirror Which you can find in lots of sources and drives sites like Squawka, Understat and the likes.
The hack to this is using PPDA - Which is the number of PASSES a team is completing inside their own half of the pitch PER DEFENSIVE ACTION of the opponent.
The hack to this is using PPDA - Which is the number of PASSES a team is completing inside their own half of the pitch PER DEFENSIVE ACTION of the opponent.
@MaddockMirror So it works on the assumption that the higher you are pressing, the more you disrupt the passing of the opposition. This isn't always true though - as good sides will still play through a poor press. But the press still occurs. For example Liv v WHA first game of the season.
@MaddockMirror That is recorded as having a PPDA of 25,13. The league average is about 10. Yet we saw West Ham pressing high up on Liverpool every time - it was just poorly coordinated as it was a new system with new players. They left a lot of gaps and it rarely got any reward.
@MaddockMirror But despite some flaws which crop up when you attempt to measure anything in football, it is an accepted measure of high pressure in football. It has a firm logic and is generally accurate over a large sample size to make it useful in the absence of anything else like TRACAB
@MaddockMirror This suggests France put more pressure high up the pitch than England. When you dig into the detail of it, it seems there that smaller sides put more pressure on teams than smaller sides here (park the bus). So when averaged out for all games played in a season - England is worst
@MaddockMirror But when you look at the few top teams who have top players in every pressure and a highly drilled to play this way - Spurs, Liverpool and Man City for example - they are putting up lower scoring PPDA games than anything a side from France could match.
@MaddockMirror If you think of this logically, it does make some sense too. A lot of midfielders have had good careers in English football without ever needing press resistance. But not many come to these shores without it. Simply because to survive in those leagues, you need it every game.
@MaddockMirror So while we see huge swings in Henderson & Lovren's passing accuracy depending on opponents pressure - someone like Fabinho consistently puts up 86-90% accuracy games regardless of opponent or the PPDA score of the game in Ligue 1. Dealing with pressure is 2nd nature.
@MaddockMirror So I think football here is more intense. More transitions, quicker attacks, more counter attacks, more direct sides. So the match speed is typically higher. Players can be more physical. There, most sides will press high and therefore midfielders need to be tactical & technical.
@MaddockMirror Btw - understat is where the ppda scores are from. Highly recommend them for public facing data. Use the 'stats' tab on this link.
understat.com/match/9205
understat.com/match/9205
