Explaining football tactics - What are Packing and Impect ?

Do you know what Packing and Impect are? Me neither until recently. Once I read about it, it seemed interesting and worth sharing.

So let's go straight to the point: watch the following video to find out the basics of Packing and Impect.

OK, now that we know what Packing and Impect are, let's use them.

I thought the last Clásico would be a good game for the experiment. We all vaguely remember that Iniesta made an impressive impact on the game when he entered the pitch in the second half, that Rakitic had not been do impressive, that Busquets had his best game in weeks and that Messi was somewhat below his level.

Can Packing and Impect show that?

I re-watched the entire game, tracked all the passes and take-ons eliminating lines, and here is the result.

1ST HALF

First let's explain the table.

The rows under "Given" show the sum of the opponents eliminated by a pass given by the player mentioned in that row, and received by the player of the corresponding column.

For instance, all the passes given from Busquets to Neymar eliminated 23 players.

The column "Take-on" show the number of players eliminated by a take-on completed by the player of the corresponding row.

For instance, Messi eliminated 9 players with take-ons.

On the right side, under the title "total given+take-on", the total number of opponents eliminated by a pass plus by take-on are summed up.

For instance, Neymar eliminated 12 opponents, 4 with passes to Alba, 5 with passes to Suárez and 3 by take-ons.

At the bottom of the table we can see the sum of all the eliminated opponents by the passes received by the player named in that column.

For instance, Sergi Roberto received passes from Ter Stegen that eliminated 3 opponents, from Rakitic and from Messi, summing up 13 opponents eliminated in total.

The data from this chart show mainly the following:

• Busquets is the main player enabling Barça to progress towards the goal, followed by Messi.

• Mascherano is the centerback who passes the ball through the first lines, Piqué does not do it. Regarding the fullbacks, their input is similar as there are not big differences between right and left flanks.

• Andrés Gomes gives half as Busquets does, whereas Rakitic during that half did not help the team to progress.

• Neymar and especially Suárez do not give passes eliminating opponents, which is quite understandable since they play upfront.

Ok, but which players position themselves correctly in order to receive those passes?

Neymar is the main target, especially found by Busquets. Suárez as well, as main striker.

This Packing metric also shows what we all know: Jordi Alba is an offensive-minded fullback. His positioning enabled his team to eliminate 24 players during that half.

"But we said it is more important to eliminate defenders than midfielders!"

Yes, true and so let's go with the second table: Impect.

In that table, I multiplied the number of eliminated midfielders by 2 and defenders by 3.

This is the result:

The main difference can be seen with Messi. He was behind Busquets with Packing but reaches a very similar result with Impect. This is due to Messi eliminating more defenders than Busquets.

A similar impact can be seen with Alba and Sergi Roberto. Sergi Roberto stays deeper than Alba and therefore his passes eliminated mostly forwards and midfielders, whereas Alba eliminated midfielders and defenders.

On the "received" aspect, for the main reasons as above, the difference between Alba and Neymar grows because the first plays deeper than the second.

2ND HALF

I completed the same exercise for the second half.

Here are the results.

More players are involved due to the substitutions.

"But the results are not comparable since some players played more minutes than others!"

Fair enough. Then let's use the metric "per 90 minutes", so all players can be compared on the same basis. I divided their score by the numbers of minutes they played, and then multiplied by 90.

This is the result:

Neymar is clearly THE player enabling his teammates to find someone in a good position and progress towards the goal. 

Busquets is the brain of the team, since his passes eliminated most opponents. He is followed by Iniesta.

On the other side, Rakitic was very poor on the “given" aspects when compared to his midfield teammates.

Let's check the Impect, where the weight of defenders eliminated is higher that the one of midfielders. Remember, defenders are multiplied by 3, midfielders by 2 and forward by 1.

Neymar is still well ahead.

Iniesta gets closer to Busquets. Iniesta is much more prone to eliminate opponents than André Gomes and Rakitic.

On a side note, it is also interesting to see the differences between first and second half. 

For instance, Alba changed the way he played. He received much more during the first 45 minutes. Also Messi was a generator during the first half, and was more a receiver during the second one. Is it a good or bad? That is not the point, it must be considered together with many more concepts. But Packing and Impect clearly show that something changed and entice the observer to get more into details to understand what happened.

CONCLUSION

Packing and Impect are two interesting metrics. They show which players are able to eliminate opponents and therefore to progress towards the goal, and which players make themselves available to be able to receive those passes. I don't know any other metrics measuring the same or similar, and they measure an important aspect of the game. Therefore I understand Impect and Packing are a good tool to improve our understanding of a game. They put a number on something we often have a "feeling" about but no way quantify it. I guess all the clubs will use it very soon!

If you like the concept and want to know more about Packing and Impect, check out the following links:

IMPECT & Packing: the Future of Football Analytics is Here

Stefan Reinartz's path from player to analyst helps us understand passing

Is the packing rate in football (soccer) a foolproof scale?

http://www.impect.com

If you want to know more about Busquets and Iniesta, check out the following posts:

Explaining football tactics - Why is Iniesta so important for FC Barcelona?

Tactics made easy - Sergio Busquets


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