Total Football, we have all heard this phrase being used. It’s bounded around by commentators and coaches as if it were a phrase that depicts a supreme playing method, or a flowing attacking tactical approach to the game.  In its purest form, Total Football is proactive and not based on counter attack, and also uses on positional interchange and hard pressing.  A player who moves out of position is replaced by a team mate, and retaining the team’s intended formation.  In this fluid system, no outfield player is fixed in a nominal role; anyone can be successively an attacker, a midfielder or in defence. The only player fixed in a nominal position is the keeper. 

The foundations for Total Football were actually laid by Englishman Jack Reynolds  who was the manager of Ajax on 3 occasions, from 1915 to 1947 (as well as being held in a Nazi internment camp).

Total Football’s tactical success depends largely on the adaptability of each footballer within the team, in particular the ability to quickly switch positions depending on the on-field situation. The theory requires players to be comfortable in multiple positions; hence, it places high technical and physical demands on them.  In a nutshell, it is hard to achieve.

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They are important right.  Few will, but some do change games.  Roughly half the goals scored in soccer arise either directly or indirectly from set-plays, that is to say from free-kicks, corners and throw-ins.  Concede a free kick at the wrong time and place, and a games result can alter from one or two touches of the ball.  Just ask David Beckham – one kick of the ball and England get to go to the world cup. 

When the ref blows the whistle for a foul or misconduct, it helps the kicker to know if they can shoot straight at goal.

So when is a free-kick direct or indirect?

Here are 10 offences that can lead to a direct free-kick.  When a player:

1. Kicks or attempts to kick an opponent
2. Trips or attempts to trip an opponent
3. Jumps at an opponent
4. Charges an opponent
5. Strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
6. Pushes an opponent
7. Makes contact with the opponent before touching the ball when tackling
8. Holds an opponent
9. Spits at an opponent
10. Handles the ball deliberately

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As a response to feedback from our customer survey we have added a new feature to help you get more from Statzpack, and iPad soccer analysis tool.  To allow greater analysis of your data, we have added a new feature on the Manager website which allows you to see all your players stats on one single page.  Drop down the Analysis tab and at the bottom you will see ‘Matrix Analysis’.  Select your team and time period and press Go, and you will get a one page snapshot of the data. Plus, you can also export this page to Excel. 

And just to let you know that this a Version 1 of this feature, we haven’t got it to where we want it to be, but we thought we’d put it out there – so we will shortly improving this function.  And if you have any ideas – SHOUT! 
Below is an example of the output you can obtain.

Mention the term Assist to a European player or coach a decade ago and you would have probably drawn a blank.  In fact, in the pro leagues in England and Scotland it is only since 2006-07 that this stat has been collated as part of the overall player performance league.  

The recording of assists was largely not done until the turn of the last century. It was not until 1986 when FIFA sent a technical group to monitor and unofficially record assists stats.  In their official report from that study they defined Assists to be as follows:

   1. An assist was awarded to the player who had given the last pass to the goalscorer.
   2. In addition, also the last but two holder of the ball could get an assist provided that his action had decisive importance for the goal.
   3. After goals from rebounds those players were awarded an assist who had shot on target.
   4. After goals scored on penalty or by a directly converted free-kick the fouled player received a point .
   5. In case that the goalscorer had laid on the goal for himself (dribble, solo run), no assists were awarded .
   6. No assists were awarded, either, if the goalscorer took advantage of a missed pass by an opponent .

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Statzpack opened up their product for a review by Dr Katie Liston, a lecturer in Sports at the University of Ulster.   Dr Liston’s sporting background includes national and international representation in team sports (Gaelic football, rugby union and football) and she is currently involved in an organisational and coaching capacity in women’s football in Northern Ireland.

This is the summary of what she said about Statzpack.

“It is very user friendly pitchside given its iPhone application features and the accompanying website is also clear and easy to use. It is advisable to upload the squad details onto the website in advance, though you can alter your starting lineup at any time before the game.   Substitutions are also easily integrated into the system once the squad details are entered correctly. Given its technical capacities for football purposes, Statzpack is suited to adults (or younger students of the game) with basic internet skills. However, it can be applied to all age ranges for the analysis of football.

Strikers have benefited immensely from its immediacy as well as its longer-term records over the course of a season. Thank you Statzpack.”

Katie Liston, University of Ulster, Jordanstown/ N.I. Premier Champions, Crusaders Strikers.

Read the full review here.

When we developed Statzpack and started to get users from across the globe picking up our product up we started to realize that the rules of the game are interpreted differently and applied in various ways.  This set of rules mainly apply to the 11 a side game at an adult level and were formed by a group called the International Football Association Board which was formed in 1886 and is made up of representatives of the English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish boards and significantly later joined by FIFA. The date of formation and the inclusion of FIFA points toward the true origin of soccer as a British sport.  You can find a great historical archive of this body here.

At Statzpack, in our time we have come across many variations in rules, for example; from the use of multiple yellow cards (and no red card ever presented) in a youth league in Denmark; the stopping of the game clock in Varsity soccer in the US; the allowance for players to substituted off and then back on again, frowned upon in the UK as ‘not traditional’, but encouraged in many parts of the US, (and challenging to ensure equal playing time for players).  As for us, we simply say ‘let it be’. Soccer can be played and adjusted to meet its locality and it’s probably what makes it a truly global sport.

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A much requested feature for many users is the ability to export the stats you have recorded to an Excel spreadsheet.  Well, now you can just that.  When you are looking at the Full Game Analysis page for a particular game you will now see a button - ‘Export to Excel’.  So now you can export the data to share or use in other ways.

We will be working on more of these export functions in 2011.  Right now we are building a facility that will place some charts outside of Manager so you can share those with your team, admnistrators or parents.  Plus the ability to paste a chart (using html code) into another website, your team website or school for example. Keep an eye out for an update.

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Who’d be a referee? Not me for sure, but someone has to step up to the mark to officiate the game. And thank heavens we have countless volunteers and part time refs in the game at the youth level to keep it alive. I’ve done my bit running the line, but I was useless, as I kept watching the game like a fan, mentally kicking each ball, waiting for passes to arrive.  Knowing every move is being scrutinised and evaluated by players, fans and of course parents – it’s the pastime of the calm or super think skinned. Officials we salute you!

So what does make a good referee?  I’m not sure Statzpack can tell you. I often wonder how does someone become a ref? And if you want to read one person’s journey as a USSF soccer coach, you won’t waste any time taking a flick through this blog Tales of a Soccer Referee. His journey from volunteer, to enthusiastic and qualified ref is a worthwhile read.

And talking of evaluation, an interesting report has been issued in the UK looking at the performance of the refs in the top league the EPL which gives some great stats on the card rate and PK decision by the top refs in England. Amongst other things, it also pretty much summarises the long time suspicion that the top teams are favoured by refereeing decision making when they play at home. Read More

A number of our customers have given us some user feedback about the App, seeing it almost freeze at half and full time, as they wait for the confirmation pop-up to appear.   

For example John S. told us:

“…I was just playing with it a little bit, for example, and after stopping the clock it takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes before the Full Time/Cancel dialogue box pops up.”

If you have had this problem – please read on (and forgive us for going on a little here..).

So why can it seem to take so long?

Unlike other soccer Apps available, Statzpack sends your data to our secure website.  When recording a game this occurs on 2 occasions at the end of the first half, and at the end of the second half. When your iPhone (iPod or iPad) is connected to the internet the App will detect this and attempt to send the data to the website.  The App will use either a WIFI connection or your cellular/mobile data network

This function is great, especially if you want other people to see your stats at half/full time.   Likewise when you log in to the Statzpack App, it goes off to the server to check to see if the game data on the matches what’s on the server, synchronisation.  

Now in simple terms, as the Statzpack App sends data to and from the website. Data packets up to the web, and data packets back down again.  The ‘game data files’ which get sent up and down from the server are moderate in size, for 90% of our user they are tiny. Read More

Information (more importantly statistics) is what is at the heart of analyzing game data.  We, as coaches tend to rely on our gut instinct when dealing with players, and deciding how they performed in a match, but that is far from a fair way to rate a player’s performance.  Participation in sport is driven by an individual‟s enjoyment of the sport, but also by a keen desire to improve performance. Teams, coaches and individual athletes are all motivated by a common goal of increased excellence in their designated sport, e.g. improving their league position next season, running a new personal best or winning at a major championship.  One of the key elements in achieving improved performance is the provision of feedback. Feedback involves sensory or perceptual information relating to an action or series of actions and comes from one of two sources: intrinsic or extrinsic.

“You can drive a car without a dashboard, without any information, and that’s what’s happening in soccer. There are excellent drivers, excellent cars, but if you have your dashboard, it makes it just a little bit easier. I wonder why people don’t want more information.”

-Jean-Pierre Meersseman, Soccernomics

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