Sports Reference Blog

Over the past few weeks, we have added a number of exciting improvements to FBref, many of which were requested by our users.

Pass Length Categories

We have adjusted the three categories for pass lengths.
Old Categories
Short: 0-5 yards
Medium: 5-25 yards
Long: 25+ yards

New Categories
Short: 5-15 yards
Medium: 15-30 yards
Long: 30+ yards

The issue previously was that the short category was including many passes that were blocked or deflected and therefore traveled fewer than 5 yards. This resulted in low completion totals for "short" passes, which is counterintuitive. To fix this, we are excluding passes traveling fewer than 5 yards in these categories. Now we see "short" passes as the most likely to be completed.

Defensive Actions included in Goal/Shot Creating Actions

We introduced the Shot and Goal Creating Actions metric earlier this year. This stat captures which events ultimately led to a shot or a goal. Previously, these actions were limited to the offensive side, such as Passes, Dribbles, and Fouls Drawn. We are now including defensive actions that lead to a shot or goal, such as Interceptions and Tackles.

Precise Ages on Current Season pages

For winter competitions, we list players' ages on August 1st of that season, to represent their age at the beginning of the competition. Likewise, we list ages on February 1st for Summer competitions. This works well for previous seasons, but it can be an issue for current seasons when players have a birthday during the competition. To fix this, we are now displaying precise ages on current season pages. These ages are in the YY-DDD format. For example, 27-123 indicates that the player is 27 years and 123 days old.

Ages on Match Reports

We have also added player ages to our match reports. These are the players' ages on the date of the match, listed in YY-DDD format.

Average Squad Age

Also regarding player ages, we have added each team's average age to the squad stats tables. These ages are weighted by minutes played.

Completed Matches

We have added Completed Matches to our Playing Time table. These are matches in which a player was in the starting XI and played the full match (eg was not subbed or sent off).

Average Shot Distance

Our Shooting tables offer a lot of detail about a player's shooting record. We have included the average distance from the goal of their shots. Note that this stat does not include penalty kicks and is listed in yards.

Opponent's Stats

Finally, we are now including opponent's stats on our squad stats tables. These are toggleable by clicking on the "Opponents Stats" buttons above each table. These stats show how opponents performed against a particular squad.

Opponent's stats are also included in squad pages, below player totals. This provides an easy way to compare a team's "For" and "Against" stats in each category.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2020 at 3:06 pm and is filed under Announcement, FBref, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.