Concepciones de la evaluación

Patterns of play during home m atches :

O u t of a large number of attacking moves, there were five patterns of the play in home m atches. Each of these patterns of play represented a distinct attacking move as follows:

(i) P atte rn A H .l An attack initiated from the inside of the defensive half of the pitch close to the left side of the penalty arc, moving towards the left side, then towards the centre line, then close to the penalty area of the offensive half where it is term inated by interception by a defensive player. This pattern is typical of 56 attacking moves.

(11) P attern AH.2 An attack initiated from the middle of the defensive 145

Chapter Four half of the pitch, moving towards the left side line, then moving along the left wing of the offensive half of the pitch, closing in on the left side line of the penalty area, and terminated by crossing from this position to the penalty area for shooting. This pattern is typical of 35 attacking moves.

(iii) P atte rn AH. 3 An attack initiated from the defensive half of the pitch, close to the right side line of the penalty area, moving along the right wing of the offensive half of the pitch, closing in on the penalty area and terminated by crossing from this position to the penalty area for shooting. This pattern is typical of 41 attacking moves.

(iv) P attern AH.4 An attack initiated from the inside of the penalty area on the defensive half of the pitch, close to the right side line, moving along the right side line, then moving along the right wing, approaching the right side line of the penalty area of the offensive half of the pitch and term inated by a defensive player. This pattern is typical of 40 attacking moves.

(v) P attern AH.5 An attack initiated from the middle of the defensive half of the pitch close to the penalty area, moving towards the left, then moving briefly towards the penalty area of the offensive half, and term inated by a defensive player. This pattern is typical of 38 attacking moves.

It should be noted that the graphs which typify each pattern of play, in home and in away matches, for all the teams, have been numbered and coded separately for easy identification (see Appendix A 2:3 & A 2:4 pp. 402-451).

Chapter Four Final actions with patterns of play :

In order to examine the success of these distinct patterns of play, the outcome of each attack was identified and tabulated (Table 4.2). This two-way table of counts consists of num ber of cells. Each cell contains the num ber of attacks using that pattern of play which produced the specified final actions (see Table 2.8). The row totals show the total num ber of attacks producing each final action, and the column totals show the total num ber of attacks using each pattern of play. For example, from Pattern AH.l, arose 0 occurrences of final action 1, 0 occurrences of final action 2, 1 occurrence of final action 3... 0 occurrences of final action 10, out of a total of 56 attacking moves which was 26.7% of all attacking moves for all patterns of play (i.e. Patterns AH.1-AH.5). Statistical analysis using the chi-squared test was carried out to see if any significant relationships occurred. In general for all the teams the relationship between patterns of play and final actions are shown to be high by the chi-squared test (i.e. the relationship between the types of pattern and final actions for the team A in home m atches indicated a significant relationship (%^ = 77.02 ; P < 0.001)). However, since more than 20% of all cells have an expected frequency of less than 5 the mathematical assum ptions upon which the chi-squared test is based are not met. Despite this consequent invalidation, it should be noted that the significance level 0.001 is high and may be indicative of a relationship between the two variables if a greater number of measures had been taken. The nature of the categories prevents them from being combined in order to raise the expected frequencies of the final actions in order to meet the criteria for the test.

Table 4.2

Siimmary of the frequency distribution of free attacks between final actions and patterns of play for aU attacking moves in seven home matches for team A. (Value of chi-squared statistic = 77.02 ; P < 0.001).

Final actions

Patterns of play Row

total

AH.1 AH.2 AH3 AH.4 AH.5 %

1 0 6 4 0 0 _4.810 2 0 5 5 0 0 _4.810 3 1 2 6 6 2 17 8.1 4 39 15 14 20 20 _51.4108 6 0 2 6 3 3 14 6.7 7 11 3 2 6 10 32 15.2 8 5 1 1 4 3 14 6.7 10 0 1 3 1 0 5 2.4 Total No. of attacks % 56 26.7 35 16.7 41 19.5 40 19.0 38 18.1 210 100.0

148

Chapter Four

From Table 4.2. which indicates the relationship between the final actions and patterns of play for 210 attacks in the seven home matches, the undem oted observations were made:

(i) Patterns AH.2 and AH.3 produced the final actions 1 and 2 more often than the other patterns of play. (Final actions 1 and 2 are shooting at the goal). These final actions taken together were produced in 31% and 22% of all attacks using these patterns.

(ii) The most common outcome of Patterns AH.l, AH.4 and AH.5 was final action 4, (final action 4 representing lost of possession) and this occurred more often than for any other patterns of play. 70% of Pattern AH.l, 50% of Pattern AH.4 and 53% of Pattern AH.5 produced final action 4. The distribution of their final actions was markedly similar.

(iii) Pattern AH.3 mainly produced final actions 1 and 2, and also it has produced final action 6 (final action 6 representing a comer-kick).

Clearly, the results of the above observations show that Patterns AH.2 and AH.3 were the m ost effective patterns of play since they provided most of the goals and most of the shots on target of all the patterns of play. They produced all 20 shots on target. It should also be noted that Patterns AH.l, AH.4 and AH.5 were the least successful since they did not produce any shooting opportunity out of 134 attacking moves. However, Pattern AH.3 did produce a considerable num ber of comer-kicks and shots on goal, the effectiveness of these comer-kicks wiU be examined in detail later in this chapter. It should not be assumed that an attack is fruitless if the end result is not a shot on goal. It may produce a comer-kick or a free-kick which could lead to a scoring opportunity. This should be borne in mind when later results are examined.

The most and least successful attacking pattem s of play for team A

Chapter Four

during home matches have now been identified and it is desired to assess how frequently these pattem s of play appeared in each of those matches which were analysed in relation to the result of the match. This can be seen in Figure 4,2, which shows that Pattem s AH.2 and AH.3 appeared more frequently in those m atches which were won than in those m atches which were lost. Patterns AH.l and AH.5 appeared in all of the matches played but were repeated in a greater num ber in those m atches which were lost than in those m atches which were won. Pattern AH.4 was found in regular distribution in all of the matches. It should be noted that the total num ber of attacking moves in those m atches which were won were greater than the total number of attacking moves in those matches which were lost.