Computational Metrics for Soccer Analysis

This book provides an account of the use of computational tactical metrics in improving sports analysis, in particular the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) data in soccer. As well as offering a practical perspective on collective behavioural analysis, it introduces the computational metrics available in the literature that allow readers to identify collective behaviour and patterns of play in team sports. These metrics only require the bio-dimensional geo-referencing information from GPS or video-tracking systems to provide qualitative and quantitative information about the tactical behaviour of players and the inter-relationships between teammates and their opponents. Exercises, experimental cases and algorithms enable readers to fully comprehend how to compute these metrics, as well as introducing them to the ultimate performance analysis tool, which is the basis to run them on. The script to compute the metrics is presented in Python. The book is a valuable resource for professional analysts as well students and researchers in the field of sports analysis wanting to optimise the use of GPS trackers in soccer.