Formations are a lie, for the most part. We all know this by now; learning a team’s formation generally tells you very little about how they play. One reason for this is that positions are also a lie. Nani and Diego Rossi are both wingers on paper, but anyone who watches the two knows that they play very differently. We’ve made more specific terms, like inverted winger, to help describe the difference. But what if you hadn’t seen a player play yet? What if you’d like some objective way to define a player’s role beyond just their position? Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a data-driven way of determining a playstyle that we could use to give us an idea of how a winger...wings?

From video games, to board games, to athletic competitions, having a well thought out strategy is vital to winning a game. In soccer, a major part of this pre-game strategy is deciding upon the formation, shape, and structure for a team to play. A variety of different factors would persuade a coach to structure their team into different offensive and defensive structures on a game to game basis. Some of these factors include, but are certainly not limited to: strength of squad, opposition strengths, squad availability, perceived space available, and more. Moreover, formations often are fluid and can change at half time or during the game based on a coaches instruction.

This article will analyze certain formations and shapes that are more spatially beneficial to offensive teams than defensive teams, and vice versa, and will be validated through both original metrics and metrics already used within the field.

American Soccer Analysis

Defining Roles: How Every Player Contributes to Goals

Determining the Best Lineup Formation for Controlling the Field