Let's shift our focus from ball progression to retention. This graph displays PL 23/24 central midfielders. The top right corner of the scatter plot highlights "Possession Anchors" - players who excel at receiving progressive passes while consistently retaining possession [1/5] It’s no surprise to see Rodri, Bissouma + Brighton midfielders in the top-right corner. These players epitomize the profile we’re studying: comfortable receivers between the lines, often back to goal, acting as so-called "metronomes" rather than primary ball progressors [2/5]

Many Manchester United supporters are unhappy with their team's low 'defensive line height' metric. There are some narratives based on data from markstats.club so I feel I owe you a thread 1/

https://twitter.com/markrstats/status/1609673171812384768

‘Def line height’ calculated as an average distance of all defensive actions (such as tackles and interceptions) to the team's own goal. Sides like Brentford are able to switch between high press and low block, which leads to pretty average 'def line height' numbers 2/

An attempt to assess team performance splitting by phases of play: positional attack/defense, set-piece att/def, transitional att/def, high press, buildup

The model believes Liverpool is the best PL side in terms of high press and non-set-piece attack The biggest Man City strengths are their invincible defence and unbreakable buildup

End of season is a perfect time to revisit old templates. Some of mine require updates but fine in general, others I will never use again, so it’s their last dance. Thread contains 10+ different visualizations for Premier League 21/22 1. Starting with two graphs which show average goalkick length and progression from goalkick for Premier League 21/22 teams

I've processed 50k corners and compared 2 strategies: short pass and cross into penbox.

As efficiency metric I used xG created and conceded within next 10 events after a corner.

Long corners just a bit more "risky" (chance to concede), but "reward" is higher (chance to create) In addition, here is a list of teams which "prefer" short corners the most

Note that even these teams still use long corners more often (all numbers below 50%)