A massive deep research Real Madrid player analysis for a total of 56 games and 29 players, collected over the entire season 2021/22.






Explanations:

Real Madrid lists on their website extensive reports for each match. Part of each single match report is a heat- and touchmap at the bottom of the page. These maps are made from an exhaustive amount of data, apparently gathered during or after the match, either through monitor observation and/or higher altitude monitoring. The resulting datasets are publicly available without any special unlockings or access keys, we have taken these data only and exclusively from the publicly available Real Madrid match report web pages, readable for anyone. There is zero hacking or any sort of illegal infiltration involved in obtaining the data points, which are easily readable on Real Madrid's web pages for anyone with decent IT knowledge.

We analysed, extracted, rearranged and normalised the data to be more efficient and found out that the data points also contain information on the type of ball action plus the respective minute in which they were performed. We rotated the playing field 90 degrees counter-clockwise and recalculated each vector data point to fit the above playing field. We also extended the selection mechanism for two additional parameters 'play action' and 'minute', since these information were in an invisibly way part of each single one of Real Madrid's data points.

Note that the playing field is a fixed size rectangle that is non-responsive, meaning it will not resize when you make the screen smaller or use a smartphone. You need at least a larger tablet or a laptop screen to see and work with it properly. There seems to be only a fractional small number of errors in the dataset. It could be that some real playing actions on the field were not recorded in the dataset, which may be rather irrelevant given the vast amount of data points. Overall, the data points make sense, and seem to be coherent.

Overtime actions for regular first and second half were added to minute 45 and 90. Overtime beyond 90 minutes playing time were added accordingly (see game 31 against Elche). Playing direction is indicated on the playing field with three background arrows. Halftime playing direction change is observed and eventually re-calculated so that all data points match the general direction in the above playing field.

We also added a totally new functionality, Real Madrid may eventually be a bit jealous of. A green circle indicates the average activity area, calculated over all selected data points. This average calculation is slightly weighted, meaning that goals, shots on goal, free kicks and passing data points get pushed further to the front than a block or corner. This provides for great insights into ball activities for a single match, or even for a specific player over the entire season.

This average point also gets moved around when you activate the small play button at the bottom of the green playing field. By clicking it, you can see your selected parameters being drawn onto the field in a movie format.

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