Space evaluation at the starting point of soccer transitions
This work addresses a gap in soccer analytics for coaches and analysts by providing a tool to evaluate space during transitions, though it is incremental as it builds on existing methods like OBSO.
The paper tackled the problem of evaluating space in soccer during transitions, where existing methods like OBSO are limited, by proposing OBPV (Off-Ball Positioning Value) to assess space across the entire pitch, including transition starting points, and demonstrated its effectiveness in highlighting space utilization during counter-attacks and revealing team-specific characteristics using La Liga 2023/24 data.
Soccer is a sport played on a pitch where effective use of space is crucial. Decision-making during transitions, when possession switches between teams, has been increasingly important, but research on space evaluation in these moments has been limited. Recent space evaluation methods such as OBSO (Off-Ball Scoring Opportunity) use scoring probability, so it is not well-suited for assessing areas far from the goal, where transitions typically occur. In this paper, we propose OBPV (Off-Ball Positioning Value) to evaluate space across the pitch, including the starting points of transitions. OBPV extends OBSO by introducing the field value model, which evaluates the entire pitch, and by employing the transition kernel model, which reflects positional specificity through kernel density estimation of pass distributions. Experiments using La Liga 2023/24 season tracking and event data show that OBPV highlights effective space utilization during counter-attacks and reveals team-specific characteristics in how the teams utilize space after positive and negative transitions.