Mayor's Scouting Report

[Iffy Onuora's Shiny Head]

I enjoyed reading this. The difficulty is then stripping this back to ensure a fair comparison given the team they found themselves in.

For example a CM playing for Plymouth vs one for Cardiff, will have to influence the game so differently. One might have better players around them (both defensively and offensively) which could improve their individual stats.

As someone that touches data in thier work, I'm curious how you would go about giving fair comparisons because of the above?

 

[MayorOJC]

I enjoyed reading this. The difficulty is then stripping this back to ensure a fair comparison given the team they found themselves in.

For example a CM playing for Plymouth vs one for Cardiff, will have to influence the game so differently. One might have better players around them (both defensively and offensively) which could improve their individual stats.

As someone that touches data in thier work, I'm curious how you would go about giving fair comparisons because of the above?

Yeah it's a good point! Isolating individual performance from the influence of the team is always a challenge.

IMO, the key is to use metrics that reflect a player's individual actions, not the actions of those around them. I would always try to use 'chances created' than 'assists'. An assist relies on a teammate's finishing ability. My boy Alfie Doughty recorded a huge number of chances created, but few actual assists. When you look into it, Elijah Adebayo underperformed his XG massively, scoring 5 from an xG of around 12.

Defensively, it's pretty common to use possession-adjusted stats. It's unfair to say a Man City defender is underperforming compared to a Southampton defender because they touch the ball less or make fewer clearances. It's about how they perform when the opposition team has possession in their defensive third.

Ultimately, the goal is to segment the data to get an accurate picture of a player's individual performance within the specific context of their role.