Okay, so I’ve been meaning to get into some data analysis of football matches, and “Burnley Fulham” seemed like a good starting point. I’m no expert, but I figured, why not dive in and see what I can find?
First, I needed to actually watch the match. Or at least parts of it. I went looking for highlights, replays, anything I could get my hands on. I ended up finding a full replay – score! – so I could really see what happened when.
Getting the Data Down
Next, I started taking notes, manually. Yep, old school pen and paper. I focused on a few things:
- Possession: Who had the ball more? How long did they keep it in each area of the field?
- Shots: How many shots did each team take? Where were they from? On target or not?
- Fouls:How many, the type and Where did they happen?
- Key Moments: Goals, of course, but also big chances, saves, and turning points in the game.
It was pretty slow going at first. I had to keep pausing and rewinding the replay to catch all the action. My notes were a mess of scribbles and arrows, but I was getting the hang of it. I even started noticing patterns – like how Fulham kept trying to attack down the left side, or how Burnley’s midfielders were winning a lot of tackles.
Making Sense of It All
Once I had a decent chunk of notes, I decided to put it all into a simple spreadsheet. Just to organize things, you know? I created columns for things like “Time,” “Team,” “Action,” and “Location.”
The numbers aren’t super important, the feeling I was getting was. It helped me see the flow of the game in a different way. The process gave me an idea of how I can approach other recordings.
This was just a first try, of course. There’s so much more I could do with this. I could track even more detailed stats, compare this match to others, that I’ve recorded. But for now, I’m pretty happy with my little experiment. It’s cool to see how you can take something as chaotic as a football match and break it down into something you can understand a bit better.
