Heatmaps in soccer: event vs tracking datasets

TL;DR

This study compares heatmaps generated from event and tracking datasets in soccer, revealing that correlation depends on scale, varies among players, and is influenced by position, with moderate overall correlation.

Contribution

The paper systematically analyzes how event and tracking heatmaps differ in soccer, identifying optimal scales and positional effects on correlation.

Findings

Optimal scale for maximum correlation identified

Correlation varies significantly among players

Defenders show higher correlation than forwards

Abstract

We investigate how similar heatmaps of soccer players are when constructed from (i) event datasets and (ii) tracking datasets. When using event datasets, we show that the scale at which the events are grouped strongly influences the correlation with the tracking heatmaps. Furthermore, there is an optimal scale at which the correlation between event and tracking heatmaps is the highest. However, even at the optimal scale, correlations between both approaches are moderate. Furthermore, there is high heterogeneity in the players' correlation, ranging from negative values to correlations close to the unity. We show that the number of events performed by a player does not crucially determine the level of correlation between both heatmaps. Finally, we analyzed the influence of the player position, showing that defenders are the players with the highest correlations while forwards have the lowest.