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Structural Pass Analysis in Football: Learning Pass Archetypes and Tactical Impact from Spatio-Temporal Tracking Data

Oktay Karakuş, Hasan Arkadaş

Abstract

The increasing availability of spatio-temporal tracking data has created new opportunities for analysing tactical behaviour in football. However, many existing approaches evaluate passes primarily through outcome-based metrics such as scoring probability or possession value, providing limited insight into how passes influence the defensive organisation of the opponent. This paper introduces a structural framework for analysing football passes based on their interaction with defensive structure. Using synchronised tracking/event data, we derive three complementary structural metrics, Line Bypass Score, Space Gain Metric, and Structural Disruption Index, that quantify how passes alter the spatial configuration of defenders. These metrics are combined into a composite measure termed Tactical Impact Value (TIV), which captures the structural influence of individual passes. Using tracking and event data from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, we analyse structural passing behaviour across multiple tactical levels. Unsupervised clustering of structural features reveals four interpretable pass archetypes: circulatory, destabilising, line-breaking, and space-expanding passes. Empirical results show that passes with higher TIV are significantly more likely to lead to territorial progression, particularly entries into the final third and penalty box. Spatial, team-level analyses further reveal distinctive structural passing styles across teams, while player-level analysis highlights the role of build-up defenders as key drivers of structural progression. In addition, analysing passer-receiver interactions identifies structurally impactful passing partnerships that amplify tactical progression within teams. Overall, the proposed framework demonstrates how structural representations derived from tracking data can reveal interpretable tactical patterns in football.

Structural Pass Analysis in Football: Learning Pass Archetypes and Tactical Impact from Spatio-Temporal Tracking Data

Abstract

The increasing availability of spatio-temporal tracking data has created new opportunities for analysing tactical behaviour in football. However, many existing approaches evaluate passes primarily through outcome-based metrics such as scoring probability or possession value, providing limited insight into how passes influence the defensive organisation of the opponent. This paper introduces a structural framework for analysing football passes based on their interaction with defensive structure. Using synchronised tracking/event data, we derive three complementary structural metrics, Line Bypass Score, Space Gain Metric, and Structural Disruption Index, that quantify how passes alter the spatial configuration of defenders. These metrics are combined into a composite measure termed Tactical Impact Value (TIV), which captures the structural influence of individual passes. Using tracking and event data from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, we analyse structural passing behaviour across multiple tactical levels. Unsupervised clustering of structural features reveals four interpretable pass archetypes: circulatory, destabilising, line-breaking, and space-expanding passes. Empirical results show that passes with higher TIV are significantly more likely to lead to territorial progression, particularly entries into the final third and penalty box. Spatial, team-level analyses further reveal distinctive structural passing styles across teams, while player-level analysis highlights the role of build-up defenders as key drivers of structural progression. In addition, analysing passer-receiver interactions identifies structurally impactful passing partnerships that amplify tactical progression within teams. Overall, the proposed framework demonstrates how structural representations derived from tracking data can reveal interpretable tactical patterns in football.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 31 sections, 14 equations, 15 figures, 6 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Action valuation and pass evaluation
  4. Tracking-data-based spatial analysis
  5. Passes as tactical actions and defensive disruption
  6. Unsupervised learning and tactical pattern discovery
  7. Data
  8. Tracking and Event Data
  9. Pass Extraction
  10. Dataset Statistics
  11. Methodology
  12. Conceptual Structural Perspective
  13. Structural Representation of a Pass
  14. Structural Pass Metrics
  15. Line Bypass Score (LBS)
  16. ...and 16 more sections

Figures (15)

  • Figure 1: Overview of the proposed framework. Event and tracking data are combined to extract passes, compute structural metrics, derive pass archetypes, and analyse tactical value and team-level structural styles.
  • Figure 2: Conceptual structural perspective on passing. The figure illustrates four structural mechanisms of passes: circulatory, destabilising, line-breaking, and space-expanding.
  • Figure 3: Illustration of the structural metrics used in the proposed framework. Panel A shows the intuition behind the Line Bypass Score, Panel B illustrates the Space Gain Metric, and Panel C highlights the Structural Disruption Index as a change in defensive shape.
  • Figure 4: Representative examples of the four structural pass archetypes. Each panel shows a pass in tracking context together with the surrounding defensive structure.
  • Figure 5: Structural representation of passes in the learned feature space. Colours indicate structural pass type.
  • ...and 10 more figures