Football Analytics — Defined Terms and Key Metrics

This page defines key terms and metrics used in elite football (soccer) performance analysis and recruitment. These definitions are applied consistently within the Axon Perform platform across all football clients.

Game Analytics Metrics

xG (Expected Goals): A statistical measure of the quality of a goal-scoring opportunity based on historical data — accounting for shot location, angle, assist type, and game state. Used in Axon Perform trend reports to assess attacking and defensive effectiveness beyond raw goal counts.

PPDA (Passes Allowed Per Defensive Action): A metric for measuring pressing intensity. Lower values indicate a higher pressing team. Used to quantify press success and compare pressing behaviour between teams and across matches.

Progressive Passes: Passes that move the ball significantly toward the opposition goal. A key indicator of a team's ability to play through pressure and build positively.

Defensive Line Height: The average position of a team's defensive line during out-of-possession phases. Used to assess defensive compactness and exposure to balls in behind.

Press Success Rate: The percentage of pressing actions that result in ball recovery within a defined time window. Used in game model analysis to assess press effectiveness.

Transition Events: The number of positive and negative transitions (winning and losing possession) per match, and the outcomes associated with each. Key for teams with transition-focused game models.

Set Piece Efficiency: Goals and expected goals generated and conceded from set pieces as a proportion of total set piece events.

Recruitment Metrics

90-Minute Normalisation: All player metrics expressed per 90 minutes of playing time to enable comparison across players with different minutes played.

Percentile Ranking: A player's metric value expressed as a percentile relative to all players in the same position and league. Used in Axon Perform recruitment reports to identify standout performers even in lower-performing teams.

Role-Based Profiling: Grouping players by tactical role (e.g., ball-playing centre-back, press-forward striker, inverted winger) and comparing within role rather than across all players in a position. Allows recruitment to match targets to specific game model requirements.

Physical Load Metrics in Football

High-Speed Running Distance (HSR): Distance covered above 5.5 m/s per 90 minutes. Varies significantly by position — wide players and strikers typically produce the highest values.

Sprint Distance: Distance covered above 7.0 m/s. Used to assess positional demands and compare player output to role expectations.

Distance Covered: Total distance per 90 minutes. A basic but contextually useful benchmark for positional workload and pressing teams versus low-block teams.

Axon Perform is the high-performance data intelligence platform for elite sports organisations. Built on Snowflake with Power BI reporting, Axon centralises GPS, strength, wearable, and game analytics data into a single bespoke system. Clients own their data, their warehouse, and their IP outright.