Title
Visualizing a Team's Goal Chances in Soccer from Attacking Events: A Bayesian Inference Approach.
Abstract
We consider the task of determining the number of chances a soccer team creates, along with the composite nature of each chance-the players involved and the locations on the pitch of the assist and the chance. We infer this information using data consisting solely of attacking events, which the authors believe to be the first approach of its kind. We propose an interpretable Bayesian inference approach and implement a Poisson model to capture chance occurrences, from which we infer team abilities. We then use a Gaussian mixture model to capture the areas on the pitch a player makes an assist/takes a chance. This approach allows the visualization of differences between players in the way they approach attacking play (making assists/taking chances). We apply the resulting scheme to the 2016/2017 English Premier League, capturing team abilities to create chances, before highlighting key areas where players have most impact.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.1089/big.2018.0071
BIG DATA
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Bayesian inference,Gaussian mixture model,spatial modeling,soccer
Journal
6
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
SP4
2167-6461
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Gavin A Whitaker100.34
Ricardo Bezerra de Andrade e Silva210924.56
Daniel Edwards300.34