IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chsofr/v200y2025ip1s0960077925009397.html

Data-driven approach to defining football styles in major leagues

Author

Listed:
  • Chacoma, Andres
  • Billoni, Orlando V.

Abstract

This study proposes a data-driven methodology to define and compare styles of play in football, with a focus on the top four teams from the English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish leagues during the 2017/2018 season. Using event-based metrics derived from possession intervals, we constructed a feature matrix representing tactical behaviors at the match level. A Principal Component Analysis, followed by Varimax rotation, revealed four interpretable and distinct emergent playing styles. By projecting matches onto this style-based representation, we evaluated stylistic differences across leagues. A one-way Anova test confirmed significant inter-league variation in style prevalence. Furthermore, a random forest classifier successfully identified leagues based on the style representation, and a game-theoretic feature importance analysis uncovered consistent associations between specific styles and leagues. These findings provide a robust, reproducible framework for empirically analyzing football playing styles across competitive contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Chacoma, Andres & Billoni, Orlando V., 2025. "Data-driven approach to defining football styles in major leagues," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 200(P1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:200:y:2025:i:p1:s0960077925009397
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2025.116926
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960077925009397
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chaos.2025.116926?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chacoma, Andrés & Billoni, Orlando V., 2023. "Probabilistic model for Padel games dynamics," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    2. Li, Ming-Xia & Xu, Li-Gong & Zhou, Wei-Xing, 2025. "Motif analysis and passing behavior in football passing networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    3. Claudio A. Casal & José L. Losada & Daniel Barreira & Rubén Maneiro, 2021. "Multivariate Exploratory Comparative Analysis of LaLiga Teams: Principal Component Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-18, March.
    4. Joaquín González-Rodenas & Jordi Ferrandis & Víctor Moreno-Pérez & Roberto López-Del Campo & Ricardo Resta & Juan Del Coso, 2023. "Differences in playing style and technical performance according to the team ranking in the Spanish football LaLiga. A thirteen seasons study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(10), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Javier Fernandez-Navarro & Luis Fradua & Asier Zubillaga & Allistair P. McRobert, 2018. "Influence of contextual variables on styles of play in soccer," International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 423-436, May.
    6. Qiongjie Kou & Quanyou Zhang & Laiqun Xu & Yaohui Li & Yong Feng & Huiting Wei, 2022. "Mobile Learning Strategy Based on Principal Component Analysis," International Journal of Information Systems in the Service Sector (IJISSS), IGI Global Scientific Publishing, vol. 14(3), pages 1-12, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sara Rafiq, 2024. "Spatio-Temporal Forecasting of Hydro-Meteorological Extremes in Fiji Using Deep Learning and Ocean-Atmospheric Climate Indicators," Frontiers in Computational Spatial Intelligence, 50sea, vol. 2(3), pages 133-143, September.
    2. Song, Honglin & Li, Yutao & Pan, Pengyu & Yuan, Bo & Liu, Tianbiao, 2025. "Multilayer network framework and metrics for table tennis analysis: Integrating network science, entropy, and machine learning," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    3. Myck, Michał & Oczkowska, Monika & Kulati, Ellam, 2025. "Income and well-being in old age: The role of local contextual factors," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    4. Ran Li & Dongfeng Zhang & Yanyun Han & Zhongqiang Liu & Qiusi Zhang & Qi Zhang & Xiaofeng Wang & Shouhui Pan & Jiahao Sun & Kaiyi Wang, 2025. "Hybrid Deep Learning Approaches for Improved Genomic Prediction in Crop Breeding," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-24, May.
    5. Mastac Lavinia & Vancea Diane Paula Corina, 2025. "Governing Shadows: Institutional And Fiscal Influences On Economic Formality In The Eu," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 2, pages 119-136, April.
    6. Abugabr Elhag, Husam Eldin E. & Baleela, Rania M.H., 2025. "Preliminary investigation and analysis of the impact of the Sudan War on higher education and scientific research sectors," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    7. Robert Santa & Mladen Bošnjaković & Monika Rajcsanyi-Molnar & Istvan Andras, 2025. "Energy Systems in Transition: A Regional Analysis of Eastern Europe’s Energy Challenges," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-40, October.
    8. Xu, Fanfan & Shao, Yihe & Zhang, Yanpeng & Zong, Peijie & Tian, Yuanyu & Wang, Jingxian & Qiao, Yingyun, 2025. "Parametric investigation of the effects on waste tire pyrolysis oil in a downdraft tube reactor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    9. Ertl, Antal & Horn, Dániel & Kiss, Hubert János, 2024. "Economic Preferences across Generations and Family Clusters: A Comment," I4R Discussion Paper Series 105, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    10. Nawin Raj & Jaishukh Murali & Lila Singh-Peterson & Nathan Downs, 2024. "Prediction of Sea Level Using Double Data Decomposition and Hybrid Deep Learning Model for Northern Territory, Australia," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-25, July.
    11. Benjamin Vermaut & Corentin Burnay & Stéphane Faulkner, 2024. "Unveiling the intellectual structure of soccer performance through keywords co-occurrence: a nested bibliometric approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(12), pages 7501-7534, December.
    12. Bai, Bei & Shi, Xia & Li, Zihan, 2025. "The effects of cortical inputs on the oscillation and synchronization of the basal ganglia," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 677(C).
    13. Celli, Fabio, 2022. "Feature Engineering for Quantitative Analysis of Cultural Evolution," SocArXiv aj8xk, Center for Open Science.
    14. Shiqi Nie & Ganggang Zuo & Ni Wang & Jiancang Xie, 2026. "Identifying Hydrological Analogous Year from Magnitude and Temporal Patterns," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 40(1), pages 1-24, January.
    15. Zhang, Zeguo & Yin, Jianchuan, 2025. "Incremental principal component analysis based depthwise separable Unet model for complex wind system forecasting," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    16. Xu, Fanfan & Nešumajev, Dmitri & Konist, Alar, 2025. "Thermal decomposition behaviors and kinetic parameter calculations during common reed and its components pyrolysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    17. Hoang Xuan Ben & Tran Cong Thinh & Phan Minh-Thu, 2025. "A Dataset of Environmental Toxins for Water Monitoring in Coastal Waters of Southern Centre, Vietnam: Case of Nha Trang Bay," Data, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-12, September.
    18. Julen Castellano & Miguel Pic, 2019. "Identification and Preference of Game Styles in LaLiga Associated with Match Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Rubén Maneiro & José Luís Losada & Claudio A. Casal & Antonio Ardá, 2021. "Identification of Explanatory Variables in Possession of the Ball in High-Performance Women’s Football," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(11), pages 1-14, May.
    20. Dua Weraikat & Kristina Šorič & Martin Žagar & Mateo Sokač, 2024. "Data Analytics in Agriculture: Enhancing Decision-Making for Crop Yield Optimization and Sustainable Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-12, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:200:y:2025:i:p1:s0960077925009397. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thayer, Thomas R. (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/chaos-solitons-and-fractals .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.