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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
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Chacoma, Andrés & Billoni, Orlando V., 2023. "Probabilistic model for Padel games dynamics," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    4. 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).
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
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