The importance of context behind youth soccer player performance data outputs

"Without context, a piece of information is just a dot" - Michael Ventura

Building on my previous article around the longer-term, modular approach to youth soccer player development efforts, the next important element to add to this approach is context: the story/picture behind the performance data outputs & insights.

At PlayerStat Data, we capture well over 70 individual player performance metrics across the following 'groups':

• Defensive,
• Attacking,
• Goalkeeping,
• Set-Piece and,
• Possession.

In this article, we'll focus on possession; a very important part of the fabric of youth soccer players but one is often under-measured and over-evaluated.

A metric widely rolled out for teams and players is pass completion. This is simply derived by taking the number of successful passes as a percentage of the total number of passes played.

To many data onlookers, this gives a good indication of team/player effectiveness in possession but from a coaching & player development perspective, it is extremely limited. In essence it's missing an extra layer of data insight - context.

Take the examples below of three U15 player from one of our clients' teams last season:

With no idea of player positions, instructions/tactics or ability, what is the snap judgment here on who has the 'best' output in possession and the player with the 'worst'?

Let us add one contextual layer...pass direction.

Has your initial judgment changed after seeing the wider picture on where each player played their passes?

Without including each player's positions (giving an extra layer on potential possession instructions/distributions), one quick look at pass direction data insights shows that:

• Player A with the highest pass completion % played the highest number of passes in a sideways/backwards direction (422) and,
• Player B played the greater % of passes sideways or to players behind them (47.9%).

Let's dig a little bit deeper into possession context by highlighting the %s around progressive passing attempts and success rates (more of an overview compared to pass direction #s):

From a effective possession POV, Player C plays a much greater proportion of passes towards the opposition goal (ie. riskier & less conservative passes). Note that Player C had the lowest pass completion rate of the three players but with possession data context added, the picture is now much different around possession distribution & conservatism on the ball.

As a final element (purely for interest purposes), from the insights in the article where would you imagine each player played the most mins from a position perspective?

Looking at the player's overall positions on the pitch over the 23/24 seasons, two major contextual outcomes are apparent:

• Player B played a much larger proportion of side/back passes as they were often in quite advanced positions on the pitch & brought incoming teammates into the game.
• Player C was clearly tasked with moving possession forward from a central defensive position, with a huge number of passes attempted towards the opposition goal.

Both of these outcomes are clear to see from the data & are completely omitted from using pass completion % as a quick measure of possession effectiveness.

Bringing this all back to a youth player development perspective, it is crucially important that youth soccer coaching staff, the players themselves and their parents are given context behind the numbers.

Basing a player's development plan on catch-all metrics without looking a little deeper into those numbers is doing a disservice to the player & is ultimately missing out on a goldmine of contextual data that can supercharge players' development pathways over the longer-term.

At PlayerStat Data, we develop in-depth, individual player (and team) data insights into:

• Possession efforts,
• Efforts on goal
• Defensive facets
• Goalkeeper saves & distribution.

The culmination of all of these in-game contextual insights is the fuel it adds to our industry-leading fire; player performance benchmarking insights.

We provide a level of objective granularity & context that's not available to coaches, players or parents with any other data solution and the key thing to note is...

"It's easily accessible, understandable & affordable across clubs and teams" - Colin Brett, Cofounder & CEO of PlayerStat Data.