Eyestone wins Pitch to the Pros with new GK metric

The quartet them presented to an expert panel of Professor David Sumpter, Pegah Rahimian, David Laszlo and Rodrigo Salvador. Each got feedback and, after much deliberation, Eyestone was declared the winner.

Eyestone’s idea was to rate goalkeepers according to their attacking contribution: improving the metrics for their short, medium and long-range passes, planning for specific opposition and also the way in which the opposition goalkeeper would distribute the ball.

Eyestone also proposed integrating the way in which a keeper’s defensive abilities affected Expected Threat. You can watch his full presentation – and the feedback he received from the panel – below.

The American, who is Head of Sales and Business Development for Autonomise AI in Texas, explained that his nephew, a goalkeeper, is on the books of a Premier League club and this piqued his interest in the way the position was analysed.

He said keepers were assessed mainly on defensive measures and that they were generally underrepresented in analytics. 

Sumpter, the co-founder of Twelve who led the judging panel, said: “You said you were going to revolutionise goalkeeping and you weren’t joking!”

After watching all four presentations, he said: “The level of this is very, very high – higher than you see in many clubs to be honest . Really interesting ideas and fantastic stuff. We’ve seen all aspects of the game as well, so I’m a bit overwhelmed actually.”

János Kele was the first to present, with ‘Press Resistance in Context: Assessing Stability and Transferability Across Leagues.’

Kele, the Managing Director of the Budapest Enterprise Agency, looked specifically at press resistance and whether players could transfer this into different leagues and systems.

Next up was Abhishek Vasu, a Machine Learning Engineer, who looked at ‘quick passing in the Premier League’. Vasu defined a quick pass as one that was made a second after the ball was received. His analysis gave a new perspective to player analysis and revealed that central midfielders tended to excel in this attribute.

Kevin Kang investigated a new way of thinking about player impact in football  with his ‘Disruption Index’. He analysed not what happens at the end of a move, such as a goal or assist, but what happens BEFORE everything breaks down.

Pitch to the Pros is open to all TGG x Twelve Analytics Members and we will be holding the next contest in September.

As a TGG x Twelve Analytics Member, you also get:

• 2 x MASTERCLASSES per month delivered by industry experts
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