With the rise of Futsal, and the amount of 'Goals' and other 5/6/7-a-side companies/facilities being made available, I was wondering who would be good for 5-a-side games from the Championship; purely from a statistics point of view (mainly because I have player data from last season)
I've always wanted to see professionals condensed into 5-a-side teams and watch them play quick touch football and see which players excel, and which prefer a full-sized pitch to a smaller one due to their respective abilities. So, given that this is highly unlikely to happen due to contracts with stuff like injury risk, it's always nice to speculate. And annoying people who like to judge with their eyes and not with numbers is also kinda fun.
Basically, I'm thinking FIFA Street. Except a bit better.
This post is a basically a methodology, and while I put together the dashboard, your thoughts are welcome for improvements/amendments.
Goalkeepers
What I'm going to do with these guys, is look at saves made within the penalty area and 6-yard box, as well as pass success. As these smaller matches are played with smaller goals at close range, shot stopping I'd imagine would be key. That, as well as distribution. These aren't big pitches, so all players will have 'Accurate Short Passes per 90' in there as well.
Defenders
Interceptions and tackles are how balls are won back, so these will be measured per 90. The ball is rarely in the air, so the likes of aerial duels and clearances are pointless to include. I might include key passes per 90 as well, just to gauge creativity.
Midfielders
This will be interesting. Do you want an attacker, who dribbles a lot who can pass and score, or do you want someone who can tackle and assist the striker? Or do you want both? How would you line up? I think this might need two graphs - One with tackles and interceptions, and the other with dribbles. Both would have key passes+assists, and *perhaps* scoring contribution? I'm not sure. We'll see what I plump with. Key passes, maybe break these down to only have the short passes/throughballs?
Forwards
These should be straighforward - so non-penalty goals + assists (scoring contribution), key pass p90 (again, maybe just the shorter distance ones?) and if the striker would be tracking back, maybe tackles/interceptions. But it's more about dribbles/kp's/npgs+a's - Attacking outputs. Heavens knows what formation, but the team I eventually 'pick' will be;
- Filtered for >500 mins played
- My opinion, but based on 'outcomes' of this viz
- Probably based on this formation - GK; DEF; MID, MID; ATT with 4 subs (GK, DEF, MID, ATT)
- May have a few cognitive biases in terms of penchant for certain players