Thread by @NinadB_06

📜⚽️📊*The big football analytics thread*
Over the past year, I've had several DMs from people looking to get started in football analytics and using football data.

This is a thread of all threads and some of my own experience and limited knowledge on the subject.

How do I get started?
Over the past year, a plethora of resources have become available to so many people where it's come to the point that getting started in football analytics has probably never been easier.

What are my options?
This is where it gets very interesting because the options available to people these days are aplenty. Whether you wish to get started in R, Python, Tableau, or something else, there's something for everyone -

Getting started with R
I'm no expert with R and am only just taking baby steps at the moment, however, this thread from Mark Wilkins is very helpful for those who wish to get started with R and using @StatsBomb data

https://twitter.com/biscuitchaser/status/1275726269058093057?s=20

A thread for some more free resources in R -

https://twitter.com/tylermorganwall/status/1278455988920758277?s=20

Make sure you check out this whole thread from Tom Worville -

https://twitter.com/Worville/status/1275732993819250688?s=20

This piece from Sam Gregory is an excellent read -
medium.com/@GregorydSam/g…

Would also highly recommend reading this piece from Ben Torvaney -
statsandsnakeoil.com/2021/05/28/too…

@FC_rstats has some excellent blogs on learning R which are well worth checking out too -
fcrstats.com

Getting started with Python🐍 -
Again, I'm no expert in this field either, but from what I've observed in the past year, the Python community is a fantastic one and everybody is really helpful to each other.

@mckayjohns has a fantastic Youtube channel of his own full of great guides and tutorials -
youtube.com/c/McKayJohns

@FC_Python is another great resource and has some very insightful blogs on various aspects of Python - the basics, data analysis, visualization, web scraping, and machine learning
fcpython.com

There are several people already making great use of this Discord server but if you haven't already joined, please do -
discord.gg/fQJ2rzhx

Getting started with Tableau -
Now, this is an area where I can say I have some level of experience. Given that almost all of my work is exclusively on Tableau. It's pretty user-friendly and does the job on most occasions.

I did my initial learning about Tableau from the tutorials of the fantastic Rob Carroll whose YouTube channel still serves as a great reference place for me personally -
youtube.com/channel/UCDhJJ…

This is a little bit of a self-brag but I hope you'll forgive me. I wrote my own set of tutorials for those of you looking to get started with football data using Tableau. The techniques can be applied outside of football as well -

https://twitter.com/NinadB_06/status/1348738404989558787?s=20

The ever-helpful @NdyStats has also put together some fantastic tutorials on his Medium blog which have been a great learning guide for me and plenty others -

https://twitter.com/NdyStats/status/1404119831972962305?s=20

I would also recommend subscribing to the @infolabUK 's channel on YouTube, which is another brilliant resource for learning tidy tips and tricks on various vizzes using Tableau -
youtube.com/c/TheInformati…

My dear friend @MishraAbhiA is starting his own little series on combining machine learning with football analytics. So if that's your cup of tea, I couldn't recommend it enough -

https://twitter.com/MishraAbhiA/status/1409206303382200320?s=20

Okay then, now you've learned how to do football analytics, but where's the free data for you to play around with?
Let's get into that -

@fbref is the daily bread and butter of the analytics space and it is probably the best resource out there for data on the top five leagues in Europe -
fbref.com/en/

@WhoScored has some excellent player, team and referee stats and also useful visuals on a match-to-match basis.
whoscored.com

Understat is another great resource for numbers from the top five leagues in Europe and the Russian Premier League -
understat.com

*Collecting your own data* -
Another little thread from Mark which I'll be plugging here. This thread contains links to some very helpful online tools which help you collect data manually -

https://twitter.com/biscuitchaser/status/1256267836730867714?s=20

The guys at FC Python recently created their own event tagger which is a fantastic resource -

https://twitter.com/FC_Python/status/1379747131406352384?s=20

@NdyStats has some great tutorials on his Medium, the first of which is this one to create shot maps of your own -
sagnikdas1.medium.com/tabguide-1-mak…

Plugging McKay's channel here once again, where he has very generously put together all the brilliant tutorials for anyone looking to get started into vizzing with Python -
youtube.com/c/McKayJohns/v…

@maramperninety has put together this really nice guide on how to make xG Trendlines using PowerPoint, it's well worth your time -
maramperninety.medium.com/yes-powerpoint…

If you've followed this thread until the end, I hope you feel prepared for wherever your football analytics journey takes you, good luck and be well! 💜

Almost forgot @jaseziv has an excellent R package for extracting data from various resources, it's fairly simple to use and I've done it myself -
jaseziv.github.io/worldfootballR/

One more thing, if Tableau is your cup of tea, here's a discord server you can join to interact with and learn from fellow Tableau enthusiasts -
discord.gg/afzeW4yY

Adding a few more resources that I missed out on,
@R_by_Ryo 's football analytics repository is very comprehensive and another handy resource
github.com/Ryo-N7/soccer_…

And ofcourse, this repository assembled by @eddwebster is probably one of the most comprehensive repositories of resources I've come across -
github.com/eddwebster/foo…

Parth created this repository for extracting fbref data, another brilliant resource 👑

https://twitter.com/pathaleee/status/1277692433363427329?s=19