Success-Score in Professional Soccer – Validation of a Dynamic Key Performance Indicator Combining Space Control and Ball Control within Goalscoring Opportunities

Typical performance indicators in professional quantitative soccer analysis simplify complex matters, resulting in loss of information. Hence, a novel approach to characterize the performance of soccer teams was investigated: Success-Scores, combining space control with ball control and the correlation between the two. Success-Score Profiles were calculated for 14 games from the German Bundesliga. The dataset was split into two groups: all data points above resp. below the 80th percentile of Success-Scores. Subsequently, the relative goalscoring frequency in those two groups was compared. All data points were sorted according to their Success-Score and split into equally sized eighths. These groups were tested for a rank order correlation with the number of scored goals. Finally, the Success-Scores of two teams with different success levels as well as their opponents’ Success-Scores were compared. Results indicated significantly higher goalscoring frequencies above the 80th percentile for Success-Scores and a statistically significant rank order correlation between the Success-Scores and the number of scored goals, rs(6) = 0.73, p = .04. The more successful team showed significantly higher Success-Scores. This novel performance indicator shows significant connections to success defined as scoring goals and final ranking in elite soccer and therefore shows potential in reconizing underlying performance.