The UEFA Champions League is one of the tournaments that attract the attention of football lovers all over the world. Consequently, I felt working on a champions league project would give football fans direct insight into their team and players' performance. While searching for champions league datasets on Kaggle, I was fortunate to come across the just concluded season, 2021/2022 dataset. The dataset consists of eight different documents with some similar and different content. I downloaded each of the documents in comma-separated values (CSV) format and imported them into excel.
Figure 1: Clubs Dashboard
The first dataset is the attacking data. This dataset is majorly about the attacking players, and it consists of 177 rows and 8 columns. The columns consist of the players' names; the club the players played for; the position of the players; the total assists the players made; the total corners the players took; offside (The total number of times the players appear in an offside position); dribble (The total dribbles the players completed), and the total match the players played. The second dataset is the Attempt data. It provides information on goals attempt, and it consists of 547 rows and eight columns. The columns consist of the player name, the club the players played for, the position the players played, the total number of attempts the players made, total shots on target, total shots off target, total shots blocked, and the total matches played by the players. The third dataset is the defending dataset. This dataset is mainly on defenders' performance. It consists of 628 rows and 9 columns. The columns consist of the players' names; the club the players played for; the position of the players; the number of times the players recovered the ball; the tackles made by players; tackles won by players; tackles lost by players; clearance attempts by players; and the total match played by the players.
Furthermore, The fourth dataset is the disciplinary data. This provides information on the rough play. It consists of 585 rows and 9 columns. The columns consist of the players' names, the players' clubs, the players’ positions, the total fouls committed by the players, the total fouls suffered by players, the total yellow cards obtained by the players, the total red cards obtained by the players, the minutes played by the players, and the total matches played by the players. The fifth dataset consists of the distribution data. This data provides information on the players' past performance. It consists of 609 rows and 11 columns. The columns consist of the players' name, the players' club, the player position, the total pass accuracy, the total pass attempt, the total pass completed, the total cross accuracy, the total cross attempt, the total cross completed, the totally free kicks taken by the player, and the total matches played by the players. The sixth dataset is the goalkeepers’ data. This data describes the performance of goalkeepers. It consists of 54 rows and 9 columns. The columns consist of the goal keepers' name, the goal keepers' club, total goals saved by the goalkeepers, total goals conceded by the goalkeepers, total penalties saved by the goalkeepers, total clean sheets of the goalkeepers, the total punches made by the goalkeepers, and the total matches played by the goalkeepers.
Moreso, The seventh dataset is the goals dataset. This data provides information on how goals were scored. It consists of 184 rows and 11 columns. The columns consist of the players' names, the players' club, the players' position, and the total goals scored by the players; the total goals scored by the right foot, the total goals scored by the left foot, the total goals scored by the head, the total goals scored inside the box, the total goals scored outside the box, total penalties goals, and the total matches played. The last dataset is the key statistical data. This data describes the major performance of the player. It consists of 748 rows and 8 columns. The columns consist of the player's name, the player’s club, the player’s position, the total minutes played, the total matches played, the total goals scored, the total assists made by the player, and the total distance covered.
figure 2 : diagram view of the Data model
After perusing the dataset, I decided to focus my analysis on the clubs, players, goals, and goalkeepers. In terms of clubs, I decided to determine: the club that completed the most passes, and the club that conceded the most. The club that scored the most goals and the club that committed the most fouls. In terms of players, the questions I set to answer with the data are: which players have the highest pass accuracy? Which players have the highest goals? Which player has the most assists? Which player completed the most dribbles? In terms of goals, I decided to determine: the players with the most inside-the-box goals; the players with the most outside-the-box goals; the player who scores the most with headers; and the player with the most penalty goals. In terms of goalkeepers, I decided to determine: the goalkeeper with the highest goals conceded; the goalkeeper with the highest goals saved; and the goalkeeper with the most clean-sheets.
In data preprocessing and cleaning, the first step was to remove duplicate data. Thereafter, some of the data contained some special characters. I used "find and replace" to eliminate those characters, and I performed some other necessary cleaning, such as changing the data case using the proper () function and transforming the data into a structured format. The data was imported into Power Pivot to create a model that combines all the datasets using the "player name" as the common column. The pivot table, which makes it possible to access all the columns in the worksheet, was created from the data model, and the data were analyzed based on my questions and my taste. Separate and different dashboards were created for the club, player, goal, and goalkeeper and were linked together with hyperlinks in Excel.
to my findings, in clubs, Liverpool Fc of England completed the most passes of 7103 (22.252%), followed by Manchester City Fc of England with a total of 6781 (20.65%), and followed by Real Madrid Fc of Spain with a total of 6513 (20.65%). Club Brugge Fc of Belgium conceded the most goals with a total of 20 goals, followed by Besiktas of Turkey with a total of 19 goals, followed by Sporting Fc of Portugal and Benfica Fc of Portugal with a total of 17 goals, respectively. Bayern Munich of Germany and Liverpool Fc of England scored the most goals with a total of 30 goals, followed by Manchester City Fc of England and Real Madrid Fc of Spain with a total of 28 goals respectively. Liverpool FC of England committed the most fouls, followed by Atletico Madrid Fc of Spain as shown in figure 1.
figure 3 : video showing the combination of the four dashboards
Also, in terms of players, Martinez of Inter Milan F.C. in Italy has the highest pass accuracy with 24.7%, followed by Sarr of Bayern Munich F.C. in Germany with 19.4%. Benzema of Real Madrid Fc in Spain has the highest goals with a total of 15 goals, followed by Lewandowski of Bayern Munich Fc in Germany with a total of 13 goals. Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United Fc in England has the most assists with a total of 7 assists, followed by Sane of Bayern Munich Fc in Germany and Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid Fc in Spain with a total of 6 assists respectively. Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid Fc in Spain completed the most dribbles with a total of 83 dribbles, followed by Coman of Bayern Munich Fc in Germany with a total of 59 dribbles. As shown in figure 4 below.
Figure 4 : Players Dashboard
Similarly, in terms of goals, Benzema of Real Madrid in Spain and Lewandowski of Bayern Munich Fc in Germany have the most inside box goals with a total of 13 goals each, followed by Haller of Ajax Fc in the Netherlands with a total of 11 goals. Sane of Bayern Munich Fc in Germany has the most outside-the-box goals with a total of 3 goals. Nkunku of RB Leipzig F.C. in Germany, Haller of Ajax F.C. in the Netherlands, and Benzema of Real Madrid F.C. in Spain have the most headed goals. Benzema of Real Madrid F.C. in Spain and Lewandowski of Bayern Munich F.C. in Germany have the most penalty goals with a total of 3 goals each as shown in Figure 5 below.
Figure 5 : Goals Dashboard
In terms of goalkeepers, Courtois of Real Madrid F.C. in Spain saved the most goals with a total of 61 goals, followed by Rulli of Villarreal F.C. in Spain with a total of 41 goals. Mignolet of Club Brugge Fc in Belgium conceded the most goals with a total of 20 goals, followed by Viachodimos of Benfica Fc in Portugal and Ersin Destanoglu Besiktas of Turkey with a total of 17 goals. Viachodimos of Benfica Fc in Portugal, Courtois of Real Madrid Fc in Spain and Mendy of Chelsea Fc in England have the cleanest sheets with a total of 5 clean sheets, followed by Alisson Becker of Liverpool Fc in England and Ederson of Manchester City Fc in England with a total of 4 goals respectively as shown in figure 6 below.
figure 6 : Goalkeepers Dashboard
Three of the four clubs from England, namely, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool, are in the top five of fouls committed. This implies that England played rougher than clubs from other countries in the tournament (2021/2022 season). Similarly, they are in the top ten in terms of goals scored, with Chelsea scoring 21, Manchester City scoring 28, and Liverpool scoring 30. This implies that English clubs scored more goals combined than clubs from other countries in the 2021–2022 season. Furthermore, they are in the top five in terms of passes completed, with Liverpool having 22.52%, Manchester City having 21.50%, and Chelsea having 18.05% of passes completed. This implies that English clubs have more possession than clubs from other countries in the 2021–2022 season. Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid FC in Spain completed the most dribbles with a total of 83 dribbles, with 4 goals and 6 assists in 13 matches. Mohammed Salah of Liverpool FC in England completed a total of 49 dribbles with 8 goals and 2 assists in 13 matches. Karim Benzema of Real Madrid in Spain completed a total of 18 dribbles with 15 goals and 1 assist in 12 matches. Sane of Bayern Munich FC in Germany completed a total of 32 dribbles with 6 goals and 6 assists in 10 matches. Based on my data and analysis, the best players for 2021/2022 season are in this Order :
1. Benzema of Real Madrid
2. Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid
3. Mohammed Salah of Liverpool Fc
4. Sane of Bayern Munich
Courtois of Real Madrid FC conceded 11 goals, saved 61 goals, and kept five clean
Sheets in 13 matches. Rulli of Villarreal F.C. in Spain conceded 16 goals, saved 41 goals and kept 3 clean sheets in 12 matches. Alisson Becker of Liverpool FC conceded 14 goals, saved 15 goals, and kept four clean sheets in 13 matches. Ederson of Manchester City FC conceded 14 goals, saved 14 goals, and kept four clean sheets in 11 matches. In 9 matches, Mendy of Chelsea FC conceded 7 goals, saved 9 goals, and kept 5 clean sheets. Based on my data and analysis, the best goalkeepers of the 2021–2022 season are in this format:
1. Courtois of Real Madrid
2. Rulli of Villarreal
3. Mendy of Chelsea.
In compendium, Real Madrid's three stars are extremely exceptionally in the 2021/2022 season. Therefore, apart from winning the trophy, Real Madrid FC can be considered the best club for the 2021/2022 season. The full project is published on my GitHub Repository.
Great work!!
This is amazing