Liverpool FC's Performance in Top 6 and Derby Matches - A Statistical Analysis

Abstract

In this study, Liverpool FC players’ performance in three English Premier League (EPL) seasons is aimed to be examined. Specifically, this papers scopes on whether players’ performances significantly differ on derbies and against Top 6 teams. Players (n=725) are divided into four groups in respect to their positions on the pitch (goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, attackers) and their performance data is collected from WhoScored.com, a website which gathers basic and advanced statistics from football leagues all around the world. By calculating players’ different statistics with respect to their position in competition into Z-Scores and taking their average, we conducted T-Tests to measure whether Liverpool players perform significantly different in derbies/Top 6 matches and non-derby/Top 6 matches. All data are collected on personal computers and analyses are conducted on IBM SPSS 25.0. We found that goalkeepers did not perform significantly different between two types of matches while defenders, midfielders and attackers significantly differed (p<.05). In addition, we used support vector machine (SVM) algorithms to classify to differentiate two different types of matches with an accuracy of 97.77% overall.

Keywords

• Football,Performance,Rivalry,Machine learning

Liverpool FC’nin İlk 6 ve Derbi Maçlarındaki Performansının İstatistiki Açıdan İncelenmesi

Öz

Bu çalışmada, İngiltere Premier Lig (EPL) takımlarından Liverpool Futbol Kulübü oyuncularının 3 (üç) sezon boyunca sergiledikleri performanslarının incelenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Çalışmanın kapsamı daha belirgin olarak oyuncuların performanslarının ilk 6 ve derbi maçlarında önemli ölçüde farklılık gösterip göstermediğini incelemektir. Oyuncular (n=725), sahadaki pozisyonları gereği dörde (kaleci, savunmacı, orta saha, hücumcu) bölünmüş ve gereken performans verisi WhoScored.com üzerinden toplanmıştır. Bu veriler kişisel bilgisayarlar üzerinde kayıt altına alınmış ve IBM SPSS 25.0 ile analiz edilmiştir. Farklı istatistikler Z-Skoru ile standardize edilmiş ve ortalamaları alınmıştır, buna binaen T-Testleri ile Liverpool oyuncularının İlk 6/Derbi maçlarda sezonun geri kalanına nazaran anlamlı farklılıkta performans gösterip göstermediği incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın sonucunda, kaleciler anlamlı bir farklılıkta performans sergilemese de geri kalan oyuncuların anlamlı bir farklılıkta performans gösterdiği kanıtlanmıştır. Ek olarak, destek vektör makine (SVM) kullanımıyla maçların arasındaki fark %97.77 olarak saptanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Futbol,performans,rekabet,makine öğrenmesi

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