There is no end to the amount of sheer analysis that you can do with pass data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can analyse by location, angle, length as well as accuracy and which players are making passes. With that data, you can then look at making pass maps which can give you an overall picture in terms of passing shapes during the defensive and attacking phases, and answer questions like which players are busiest in possession? Do they play long or short passes? Which direction are their passes? Do they attempt easy or more difficult passes? Are the opposition busier on one side compared to the other and where does their main threat come from in the final third?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When talking about the final third area, the PassScore model can help answer some more critical questions about the opposition. Which players are the most dangerous? Which players get the ball into the best goalscoring positions? Where, on the pitch, are these passes played from and where are they aimed? If you can answer all of these questions using a single pass model you can gain a much better idea about your opposition prior to a match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without going into the PassScore model too much, as a dedicated article about it can be read here, in basic terms, it scores every pass and gives it a value, ranging from around -4.4 to +4.4. A positive 4.4 pass score is a pass played into a superb goalscoring position, inside the six-yard area. The negative value works in the opposite way. If an unsuccessful pass is given away in a goalscoring position according to the xG model, then it will be given a negative value. For example, if a goalkeeper makes a pass that is unsuccessful and intercepted close to his own, this will be scored negatively and close to the -4.4 bottom limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Given that the PassScore model looks at passes that help to contribute more directly to creating chances and scoring goals, passes played within the middle third are all scored zero. That\u2019s because the expected goals value for that zone is <1%. In simple terms, less than 1 in 100 shots are expected to be scored from this area of the pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okay, so which players are most dangerous for the opposition? And on the whole, where do teams make their most valuable passes from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Firstly, you can make quick pass maps for teams where the players are colour coded based on their PassScore:<\/p>\n\n\n\n