Statistical analysis of build-up phases in football in order to determine the success factors

In today’s football, data analysis plays a very important role. It allows clubs and teams to analyse and optimise multiple aspects of the game in order to continually progress. One of the essential aspects of football is the build-up phase. If a team wants to progress, it must optimise its build-up phases and be as effective as possible in this aspect of the game. The subject of this master thesis is the statistical analysis of build-up phases in order to determine the success factors. We use two statistical methods, correspondence analysis and the chi-square test of independence, to determine which features have an influence on the degree of success of a build-up phase. The features can be collective characteristics but also individual characteristics specific to the players participating in the build-up phases. At the end of this thesis, we illustrate the different features found using two build-up phases of the 2022 World Cup.