AUTHOR=Aranda-Malavés Rodrigo , Casal Claudio Alberto , Gonzalez Rodenas Joaquin , Tudela-Desantes Andrés , De Matías-Cid Pedro , Moltó-Llorens Miquel , Aranda Rafael TITLE=Tactical analysis of direct attack from the English Premier League and Spanish La Liga JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sports and Active Living VOLUME=6 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sports-and-active-living/articles/10.3389/fspor.2024.1473311 DOI=10.3389/fspor.2024.1473311 ISSN=2624-9367 ABSTRACT=
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of tactical and contextual dimensions on the offensive performance, in terms of degree of penetration or creation of goal scoring opportunities (GSO), of direct attacks in the English Premier League (EPL) and Spanish La Liga. In total, 10,078 team possessions from 40 random La Liga and EPL matches were initially selected. From that, 2,384 possessions categorized as open play direct attacks were selected for analysis, including a first univariate binary regression analysis and a further construction of adjusted binary multivariate logistic regression models. Four independent tactical dimensions (“Initial zone,” “Initial opponent position,” “Initial opponent pressure,” and “Width of the possession”) and four independent contextual dimensions (“Match location,” “Match status,” “Quality of opponent,” and “Quality of the observed team”) were initially analyzed to predict penetration performance on one hand and scoring opportunity performance on the other hand. The results showed that the distribution of the type of attacks was different in La Liga and EPL (