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Highlights review

Sunday 12 February 2023 - by SoccerSTATS.com

For each of the Featured Matches, the Highlights Review section aims at describing a selection of the game action highlights, in a way that fits the statistical focus of the website. 

To that end, each reviewed highlight action is structured into three stages: 
  • Set-up
  • Attempt
  • Outcome.
Each stage will be set to a specific status. For example, "Hit woodwork" or "Goal" are some of the possible statuses of the Outcome stage.






Stage 1: the Set-up


The Set-up is the stage that made the goal-scoring chance possible. It represents the answer to "What did that goal opportunity mostly come from?". The Set-up stage can be represented by one of the following situations:


Set-up
Individual actionA player has broken through the defence on his own, for example by dribbling an opponent, or outpacing the opponent's defence.
Thanks to that individual move, the team finds itself in a goal-scoring situation, where the player is now in a position to either shoot at goal or deliver an assist to a teammate in a key position.
Collective set-upThe attacking team has created a goal opportunity through a passing sequence or a cross.
Through ballThis is another type of collective play, however in this case the chance was created following a single forward pass through the defence, setting one of the attacking players in shooting position or on a clear path to a shooting position as the opponent defence was driven off-position by the pass.
ReboundWhat is meant by the Set-up stage being deemed a Rebound is when the attacking player owes his goal-scoring position to a number of possible situations such as the ball bouncing off another player or off the woodwork, deflected by the goalkeeper back into play, or intercepted following a missed clearance.
This is where we will also find some of the odd situations, such as own-goals, missed backward passes and other types of fortunate or unfortunate events that directly led to the defence being put at risk.
Indirect set-upThe player in shooting position has been reached by the pass of a teammate from an indirect set-piece, which could be a free-kick or a corner, or on rare occasions even a goal kick from the goalkeeper. Such type of set-up will also extend to situations beyond typical set pieces, for example if a player is set up for a goal chance following a long throw-in.
More generally this category will cover situations where an attacking player was given the time and freedom of movement to try to get the ball to a teammate in a good position.




























Set-up table









Stage 2: the Attempt


This stage covers the type of action that the player in a scoring position has undertaken in his attempt to score.

Attempt
Single touchThe player did not take the time to control the ball or to choose a position before shooting at goal. The position the player was in as he received the ball was also the position he instantly pulled the shot from. For example when the player deflected the ball towards the goal following a cross.
Multiple touchesThe attacking player has touched the ball at least once before shooting, for example to control the ball, to find a better shooting position, or as an attempt to carry the ball through the defence prior to taking the shot.
HeaderThis is another type of single-touch attempt but in this case the player did not use his feet, but rather delivered the attempt at goal via a header or a chest movement.
Direct set-pieceThe ball was struck in the direction of the goal in one touch, directly from a set piece such as a free-kick, a penalty or even a corner, with no other attacking player involved.















Attempt table






Stage 3: the Outcome


The outcome is the situation that resulted from the attempt.

Outcome
WideThe attempt at goal went wide, with no player from the defending team touching the ball.
BlockedThe defending team took back possession of the ball. For example the goalkeeper has gained control of the ball, either by having the ball in hands. Or more generally any player of the defending team has somehow regained possession.
DeflectedThe attempt at goal has been denied by a one-touch save or other type of deflection that clearly prevented the ball from entering the goal, but that did not result in the defending team regaining possession. For example, when the goalkeeper makes a save by pushing the ball back into play. If any type of one-touch save was not meant to be a pass for a teammate, the Outcome will be "Deflected".
WoodworkThis status is to be understood as "Bounced off woodwork", as opposed to "Hit woodwork". The ball came back into play after bouncing off the post or the crossbar. This means that if the went over the bar immediately after touching the bar, the Outcome will be "Wide" instead of "Woodwork".
GoalThe referee has validated the goal.





Outcome table








Action description structure


Putting it all together, we end up with a list where each highlight action is featured using the same structure (Set-up -> Attempt -> Outcome) in the highlights review section.

For example:

"Through ball -> One touch -> Deflected"
or 
"Rebound -> Header -> Woodwork"

each represent a structural description of a specific goal-scoring opportunity.




Involved players


In addition to the "Set-up -> Attempt -> Outcome" description, each featured action also includes the name of the players involved, with the player taking the shot written in bold. 

Other key players that took part in the action may also be mentioned, including players from the defending team, when one of them has had a major influence in the outcome.




Players star rating


For each reviewed highlight, the involved players can be awarded a number of stars, depending on how much of an impact each player has had in either exploiting the goal opportunity or defending against it. 

Here again, the number of stars to allocate to a player will be down to perception. Yet we can still provide some degree of structure here also, by explaining what each rating is meant to represent. The number of stars will vary from 0 to 3, with a view to evaluate players' involvement level according to the following:



Star rating for each action
 0When the player had an influence on the action but clearly not voluntarily (such as for an own-goal or a lucky/unlucky bounce or deflection).
 1One star pretty much means that the player 'did the job'. The player took part in the action, but not clearly above expectations. Some players happen to simply be at the right place at the right time. The more this happens, the more stars they will get, only one at a time.
 2 The player did a good job, and managed to make something happen that did not seem easy at all. These are the situations where we watch the replay and say "nicely done there".
For example the attacking player dribbling 2 defenders and keeping enough composure to wrong-foot the goalkeeper. Or this could also be a situation where the goalkeeper stops a penalty or another very dangerous shot at goal.
 3 The player did something exceptional. We're not necessarily talking "once-in-a-lifetime"-kind of exceptional here. We're talking about those moments where we simply saw a piece of class that directly produced critical value. These are the moments that remind us every now and then why we like this sport so much.

















Star rating table





If we take the example of a highlight featuring a player weaving past three defenders to deliver a cross to a teammate for an easy tap-in goal, the goal scorer may be granted one star for his contribution, and the player who provided such an assist might be given 2 stars, depending on how instrumental his move has proved in turning the action into a goal opportunity.

In another example, let's imagine the following situation: an attacking player sets himself free from his marking defender and delivers a powerful shot from mid-range that would have resulted in a goal had the goalkeeper not pulled out a brilliant save. In that situation, both the attacking player and the goalkeeper could be granted two stars for this action. 

As for the structural description, such a highlight action could be described as:
"Individual play -> Multiple touches -> Deflected"




Highlights action summary


As we like to focus on stats, and since each featured action gets defined with the same method, it can be interesting to show a recap of each team's type of actions. The Highlights action summary details the total number of times each condition has been observed in the featured actions for each team.







Highlights stars


This table lists the total number of stars assigned to each player that was given at least a total of two stars, considering all highlights listed on the page.






Avoiding pitfalls

The Highlights stars table should not be considered as an evaluation of the quality of each player's production as:

  • The choice itself of which highlights to feature is, by nature, subjective
  • A player that did not score but missed 4 chances may well end up totalling more highlight stars than a player that only took part in one action and scored a goal, as the ranking is mostly about how often each player has been involved in highlights.
  • Highlights relate to a selection of events that typically took place in or around the penalty area only. Obviously a fair share of a match action, including either building up or mitigating the build-up of offensive plays, draws less visibility and yet accounts for a major influence in a game, as it determines the volume of goal chances that each team will be dealing with, either offensively or defensively. Players' involvement in such phases may be under-represented in this type of ranking.



Example

You can view an example of a Featured Match highlights review for the game Arsenal vs Manchester Utd (Premier League - 3 September 2023), on the following Featured Match page:

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