<b>Thiago the fighter</b>
April 2020. Coronavirus has brought all sport to a grinding halt and the situation is unlikely to change anytime soon. The resumption of professional football is a distant prospect at best.While the time without regular games poses manifold challenges to players, supporters, and the media alike, it at least affords a little breathing space for some more profound and thorough analyses and observations that might get lost in the shuffle in normal times.The German football magazine <em>Kicker</em>, for example, recently wrote a portrait of Thiago, whose contract will expire in the summer of 2021, which naturally gives rise to some interesting speculations about his future.<a href="#according-to-kicker-thiago-has-changed-from-an-artist-to-a-worker"></a>According to <em>Kicker</em>, Thiago has changed from an artist to a workerIn their article on Thiago from 21 February, 2020, the <em>Kicker</em> describes the process of this transformation. They hold that the change in coach from Kovač to Flick prompted Thiago to fundamentally reconsider his style of play. He realized that playing football was not all about “aesthetic no-look passes”, but also contained such “basic elements” as “robust challenges and tackles”, particularly in a competition like the Bundesliga.<a href="https://miasanrot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/hertha-bsc-v-fc-bayern-muenchen-bundesliga-2-935x650.jpg">Media</a><strong>Thiago Alcántara celebrates his goal against Hertha BSC.</strong>
(Image: Stuart Franklin/Bongarts/Getty Images)In doing so, the Kicker once more reinforcerd the equally well-established as unfounded contention that Thiago has been faced with ever since his arrival in Munich many years ago. He is considered a technical player with a lot of shiny moves no doubt, but if you want to succeed in Germany, you need to be willing to work hard and go the extra mile. And that is what he supposedly does not do.<a href="#the-rate-of-challenges-won-is-no-evidence-for-the-prevailing-theory"></a>The rate of challenges won is no evidence for the prevailing theoryEvidence to substantiate the claim? Hardly any. The Kicker’s conclusion is apparently based on a slightly improved rate of challenges he has won recently. However, there are certain issues with this particular statistic.<a href="#weaknesses-of-the-challenges-won-statistic"></a>Weaknesses of the challenges won statisticMartin Rafelt, author at spielverlagerung.de as well as a coach and analyst at Hajduk Split, already explained the problems with this statistic based on the example of a match of Dortmund against Augsburg several years ago: The main problem with any challenges-related statistic is that it is unclear what exactly constitutes a won or lost challenge. It is also quite uncertain what value a higher rate of won challenges really adds to a team.<a href="#one-statistic-alone-does-not-say-a-lot"></a>One statistic alone does not say a lotIt should be noted that the rate of challenges won without the absolute numbers of challenges for perspective has to be treated with caution. With 9 challenges in a match, the difference between a celebrated 56% and a criticized 44% of challenges won is often only the difference of a single challenge (5/9 vs. 4/9 challenges won) in the primary data.Considering the problems in data collection and the ambiguity of interpretation mentioned by Rafelt, this in itself should already give you pause.<a href="#there-is-not-the-one-best-statistic-for-challenges"></a>There is not the one best statistic for challengesRafelt also rightly points out that there is no defined event of a “challenge” in the primary sports data Opta records. The figures regularly quoted in German sports media are computed from various Opta values.It is therefore unclear whether the Kicker’s challenge statistic refers exclusively to defensive actions or whether offensive actions such as dribbles are included as well.I have tried to reproduce the challenge statistics…
April 2020. Coronavirus has brought all sport to a grinding halt and the situation is unlikely to change anytime soon. The resumption of professional football is a distant prospect at best.While the time without regular games poses manifold challenges to players, supporters, and the media alike, it at least affords a little breathing space for some more profound and thorough analyses and observations that might get lost in the shuffle in normal times.The German football magazine <em>Kicker</em>, for example, recently wrote a portrait of Thiago, whose contract will expire in the summer of 2021, which naturally gives rise to some interesting speculations about his future.<a href="#according-to-kicker-thiago-has-changed-from-an-artist-to-a-worker"></a>According to <em>Kicker</em>, Thiago has changed from an artist to a workerIn their article on Thiago from 21 February, 2020, the <em>Kicker</em> describes the process of this transformation. They hold that the change in coach from Kovač to Flick prompted Thiago to fundamentally reconsider his style of play. He realized that playing football was not all about “aesthetic no-look passes”, but also contained such “basic elements” as “robust challenges and tackles”, particularly in a competition like the Bundesliga.<a href="https://miasanrot.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/hertha-bsc-v-fc-bayern-muenchen-bundesliga-2-935x650.jpg">Media</a><strong>Thiago Alcántara celebrates his goal against Hertha BSC.</strong>
(Image: Stuart Franklin/Bongarts/Getty Images)In doing so, the Kicker once more reinforcerd the equally well-established as unfounded contention that Thiago has been faced with ever since his arrival in Munich many years ago. He is considered a technical player with a lot of shiny moves no doubt, but if you want to succeed in Germany, you need to be willing to work hard and go the extra mile. And that is what he supposedly does not do.<a href="#the-rate-of-challenges-won-is-no-evidence-for-the-prevailing-theory"></a>The rate of challenges won is no evidence for the prevailing theoryEvidence to substantiate the claim? Hardly any. The Kicker’s conclusion is apparently based on a slightly improved rate of challenges he has won recently. However, there are certain issues with this particular statistic.<a href="#weaknesses-of-the-challenges-won-statistic"></a>Weaknesses of the challenges won statisticMartin Rafelt, author at spielverlagerung.de as well as a coach and analyst at Hajduk Split, already explained the problems with this statistic based on the example of a match of Dortmund against Augsburg several years ago: The main problem with any challenges-related statistic is that it is unclear what exactly constitutes a won or lost challenge. It is also quite uncertain what value a higher rate of won challenges really adds to a team.<a href="#one-statistic-alone-does-not-say-a-lot"></a>One statistic alone does not say a lotIt should be noted that the rate of challenges won without the absolute numbers of challenges for perspective has to be treated with caution. With 9 challenges in a match, the difference between a celebrated 56% and a criticized 44% of challenges won is often only the difference of a single challenge (5/9 vs. 4/9 challenges won) in the primary data.Considering the problems in data collection and the ambiguity of interpretation mentioned by Rafelt, this in itself should already give you pause.<a href="#there-is-not-the-one-best-statistic-for-challenges"></a>There is not the one best statistic for challengesRafelt also rightly points out that there is no defined event of a “challenge” in the primary sports data Opta records. The figures regularly quoted in German sports media are computed from various Opta values.It is therefore unclear whether the Kicker’s challenge statistic refers exclusively to defensive actions or whether offensive actions such as dribbles are included as well.I have tried to reproduce the challenge statistics…
