Goals Subtracted (g-): Set piece edition

This past summer we introduced a framework for evaluating the individual contributions of defenders, goals subtracted (g-). We concluded that–while it was a tricky problem, and not one that was obviously made easier even with tracking data–the framework had potential to help control for otherwise unmitigated interrupting g+ value. We observed players on bad defensive teams getting a lot of interrupting value largely because the ball is coming at them all the time, and g- hinted that it might be able to control for this. That article was about measuring open-play defending, and this article is about measuring set-piece defending. If you are unfamiliar with goals added (g+), I would start here with our primer.

Read More