Long-term analysis - how to check if your team is developing

How do you check whether your team or academy is really developing in the area you decided is key? Match-to-match analysis won't show it. You need long-term analysis - based on hard data from the whole season.

Why not the result

We usually judge our work by the result. But in football the result of many games does not reflect what happened on the pitch, and it is easy to draw the wrong conclusions from it.

Long-term analysis shows whether what we work on brings an effect and whether we are getting closer to the goals we set.

Where to start

• Choose key areas. What is the priority in your game model? For example dominance and positional attack, or vertical play focused on transitions.
• Choose indicators that are easy to measure. Ones you can count through the whole season and that everyone on the staff understands.

An example indicator

A popular indicator is the number of "bases" gained - having an "open" ball in spaces defined in relation to the opponent's shape. With more advanced tools you can use xG, with simpler ones - possession in the penalty area or in the opponent's half.

I value a simple indicator most: I clearly define the positional attack sub-phase and count all attacks that end with possession in the zone of direct threat to the goal. It is simple, repeatable and shows well whether we are developing.

This kind of analysis takes time and consistency, but it shows two things at once: where we are making progress and what we still need to work on.

🎯 The result tells you what happened in a match. Long-term analysis tells you whether the team is developing.

Do you track at least one indicator through the whole season? 👇