Day 69

We have some really cool analytical tools for studying the performances of individual players and the effectiveness of certain plays. Today I finally pulled them out.

I looked at the analysis of yesterday's match. I didn't go particularly in-depth, since I'm still learning what the tools can show me—I expect I'll come back to this again later in the week, and maybe on a regular basis in future.

A few things jumped out at me, though.

All of Atkinson's intercepted passes were forward balls; interestingly, he mostly played short backward passes from just inside our own half. Christophe and Power, the other central midfielders who played yesterday, both predominately played forward and sideways balls, and Christophe managed a brilliant 92.9% success rate (from 28 attempted passes).

Anyon's long balls tended to fail. Of the six times he put the ball near or past the halfway line, five were intercepted. This suggests that I might want to look into whether or not changing his distribution instructions would be a good idea. He also mostly gave the ball to Bore, whose 51 attempted passes far overshadowed the contribution of any other players.

Olembé attempted 14 crosses during the match. Half of those were in open play, and of these only two successfully found their target. Should I alter his instructions for crossing, or was this a one-off?

Both Olembé and Russell do the most damage when they stay close to the touchline, yet both had an average position some twenty yards infield. I don't know whether they might be better served by individual or team instructions to use more width.

Our attacking players tackled poorly—by which I mean that they consistently lost tackles, no matter where they were on the pitch. Olembé was particularly problematic on this point, with all three of his missed tackles being inside his own half (and, by memory, two of these led to goal-scoring opportunities for Cambridge).

No clear pattern emerges from the map of passes made by all of our players during the match, but I'm sure there is one. It may not be clear until I see the analysis of several more matches, but I'm sure there's something to learn.

This is a fascinating tool. I'll definitely be digging deeper into analysis in the coming days and weeks.