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Create a consistent definition for keeper events in SPADL #37

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probberechts opened this issue Dec 3, 2020 · 0 comments
Open

Create a consistent definition for keeper events in SPADL #37

probberechts opened this issue Dec 3, 2020 · 0 comments

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@probberechts
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probberechts commented Dec 3, 2020

SPADL defines 4 different event types for describing save/ball recovery actions by keepers:

Action type Description Success
Keeper save Keeper saves a shot on goal Always success
Keeper claim Keeper catches a cross Does not drop the bal.
Keeper punch Keeper punches the ball clear Always success.
Keeper pick-up Keeper picks up the ball Always success

First, it is somewhat unclear what the differences between these four events are. For example,

  • When a keeper saves a shot but can not claim the ball, is it a "keeper save" or "keeper punch" action? Or are "keeper punch" actions only for crosses?
  • When a keeper rushes out to either cut out an attacking pass (in a race with the opposition player) or to close-down an opposition player is that a pick-up or a claim?
  • Is there a difference between a keeper pick-up and interception action (apart from the body part). If there is no difference it might be better to simply drop the keeper pick-up action.

Second, there are incenstensies between the different converters.

  • The keeper pick-up action is missing in the StatsBomb and Wyscout converters. I believe that "Goalkeeper" events with type "collected (25)" and outcome "success (15)" should be converted to this type, while events with outcome "claim (47)" should be keeper claim events.
  • Both the keeper pick-up and keeper claim actions are missing in the Wyscout converter
  • The definition of SPADL states that keeper saves will always have 'success' as a result, but the Statsbomb action-attribute pair 'Shot Saved (In Play Danger)' would lead to a conversion to a failed keeper save action. The same goes for the Statsbomb action-attribute pair 'Punch (In Play Danger)', although I'm not sure whether that combination can actually occur in the data.

A related point was raised in #45: How should keeper throws be addressed? Is a keeper throw also considered a goal kick in terms of SPADL actions? I think it makes sense to either have separate SPADL actions for these two, or one (renamed?) SPADL action for them both. I do not think that a keeper throw should be considered a regular pass, since there is no pressure on the keeper to execute this action quickly (in contrast to a regular pass). Therefore it may need a different treatment when processing the data.

Although keeper actions are not very important in the action valuing frameworks, this might be useful in other applications of SPADL. Therefore, I believe it would be good to agree upon a definition for these events and fix the inconsistencies in the converters.

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