Football Performance. Günter Neuser

      Picture 3 The sports performance areas in football

       Note: The presentation of all relevant aspects in the planning and analysis of the performance of one or more games is the subject of this book. The areas of scouting, medicine and training are not considered in the following.

      THE CONTENTS

      Coach Thomas Tuchel (Mainz 05): "That was once again a reflection of this season. We started well, dominant, switched well and should have led higher."

      To systematically plan, analyse and evaluate the performances for the game requires conception and application:

      a. the style of play (syn. game philosophy / game system) as the way to play football in one or more seasons

      b. the match plan as the taret for a specific match

      c. match analysis and evaluation of the performance of a match (e.g. in comparison to the match plan) before, within and after a match

      d. the game trend as the analysis and evaluation of the performance in several games compared to the style of play to be considered as long-term development plan.

      Picture 4 Performance planning and analysis areas in football

      Systematic planning of the game performance is about promising behaviour patterns for

      a. an entire club, an age-group, for tactical positions / groups and a team in the long term - this is the style of play

      b. concrete players, tactical positions / groups and a specific team on the basis of the playing style at short notice for a game - this is the game plan.

      The systematic recording, analysis and evaluation of game performance (here the game analysis and game trend) consists of

      a. the recording of the actions during and after a match

      b. the determination of the performance values and recognition of typical behaviour patterns in one or more games

      c. the evaluation of performance through comparisons with planned values and/or planned/expected behaviour for own and opponent performance subjects (i.e. teams, tactical positions / groups and specific players).

      THE CHALLENGE

      The ideas of those responsible for the planning, analysis and evaluation of performance in football range between the extremes:

      a. Everything is coincidence and only depends on the personal, individual abilities of the players. The coach is a pure (de)motivator like Franz Beckenbauer in 1990 "Geht's Raus und spielts Fuaßball". The consequence of this is: a planning of the game is only available in rudimentary form; a methodical recording of the game performances in the form of defined events is not wanted / possible and a measurement of the performances is also not possible.

      b. Everything is pre-planned and runs according to defined (planned) patterns. The coach is the strategic planner like Felix Magath "Football is like chess". The game performances are comprehensively defined and therefore completely recordable, measurable and assessable.

      To build up a systematic planning, analysis and evaluation of the playing performances in a club and to operate it sustainably requires

      a. an overall methodological concept adapted to the current situation of the club and the goals pursued

      b. the technical tools in the form of operational and intelligent (analytical) systems

      c. the concentrated knowledge of all areas of performance management

      d. the data used to record operational activities and performance indicators to evaluate performance

      e. the training of the sports participants in the concept and tools by experienced guides.

      Picture 5 The components in performance management

      THE MOTIVATION

      In publicly available sources, there are few sports science treatises as well as popular literature that merely present individual aspects of planning, analysis and evaluation of football performance in isolation.

      There is therefore no generally available overall view in the sense of a framework for systematic performance planning and management in football. The availability of IT systems to support the management of match performance varies according to the subject area:

      a. there are many systems for qualitative game analysis via video analysis with very different functions, technical features and prices

      b. there are few systems for quantitative, data-based match analysis and no system for automatic, match style-related tactical analysis

      c. there is no system for the methodical-systematic design of playing styles.

      Overall, the market for these systems is relatively unclear and there is no reliable, systematic market overview.

      Although there are many performance indicators showing technical (e.g. number of passes, pass rate, ball possession) and conditional (e.g. mileage, sprints) performances, there are no tactical performance indicators (e.g. number of counters versus number of combination attacks) for the large number of football fans.

      The aims of this book are therefore

      a. to present those responsible for sports (including coaches, match analysts, sports managers) in clubs and associations with a guide to support the development and implementation of performance management in football and to give an initial overview of the market for performance management systems

      b. to show football sport journalists possibilities for improved performance evaluation and presentation in reportage

      c. to provide football fans with a clear insight into modern performance indicators and analysis to help them better understand match performances.

      These objectives will be achieved by

      a. an overview of the services specific to football is presented in a match performance model

      b. the tactical activities in the game are described in a structural model of football with their characteristics and process relationships

      c. the development and connection of tactical activities in possible game concepts (syn. game style or game philosophy) are discussed

      d. the long- and short-term performance targets are defined together with the performance indicators for matches

      e. the methods of analysis and evaluation are defined

      f. an overview of the currently existing IT systems for performance planning and analysis is given

      g. the practical applicability of this guide is demonstrated by analysing and evaluating performance in specific games using selected IT systems.

      A READING GUIDE

      How should one read this book or work with it?

      You will want to look at practical examples of how to analyze and evaluate game performance before you get into the methodology, then

      a. use the system of ortec/sports and look at selected analyses of games (https://ortecsports.com/free-trial/)

      b. watch the video about modern game performance analysis from optikick on youtube

      (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH_xnvNfiaM).

      If you want to get a first overview of game performance, please read the chapter "Game Performance Model".

      If you would like to find out about the content of game styles, then read the chapter "Game planning - game styles".

      You want to understand how to analyze games using video scenes, then read the chapter "Qualitative Game Analysis".