PES2020 football data visualizations of top 5 leagues and mildly interesting points
Almost 4–5 months ago, I decided to do some coding for better Scout utilization on PES2020 and I saw that there was no data set to begin with. So, I web-scaped some and uploaded the data set on here on kaggle. After only a few days , some good fellow created a notebook on kaggle, using my dataset for some visualizations. It was really a nice surprise , even though the visualizations were pretty generic and didn’t provide any insight or whatsoever.
I’ve created a new notebook and new visualizations, filtering out the players from the leagues other than English, Italian,French,Spanish and Portuguese leagues. One wishes the game included the Bundesliga :/ And The Portuguese League has only 18 teams, compared to the rest of the bunch with 20 teams. This effects the number of players a little , like %9.
You can reach the notebook and visualizations here , or through the notebooks related to the data set on kaggle page. I urge you to go check the notebook page because the plots on that webpage are interactive, unlike the images I’ll be sharing here and saying a few words about each of them.
First image is BlackBall+GoldBall player distribution . Premier Leage is leading the pack with 146 players ,La Liga coming second with 130 and Serie A following third with 122. Premier Leage has 46 black players , La liga 37 and Serie A 33. Worth noting that Liga NOS has no Black players. I’m pretty sure that the ratio of BlackBall player numbers between Premier League and Serie A was greater , until recently. I find it really positive that the numbers between the top 3 is similar.
Second image is distribution of Registered positions. It’s not a surprise that all the leagues have CB,CMF,GK and CF positions as the most populated ones. Since almost no Formation or Game plan exists without one of these positions (Wink Wink at Spalletti’s ROMA).
We can easily see the SS position becoming history, with so few notable players left at that position(Dybala, T.Muller and A.Gomez being the only 3 BlackBall players). (Side Note : Another supporting evidence is the overwhelming number of SS players on the Legendary player list).And the AMF position is also pretty radicalized.
Worth noting that Serie A has only 67 CFs while Ligue 1 has 84. And Serie A is home to 120 CBs , putting them 20 players ahead of the other 20-team leagues , having 102,101 and 98 CBs.
Third image is the distribution of playing styles. This is my favourite chart. Even if we put our faith in the team or individual who is deciding playing styles for players , I find this chart pretty insightful.
- Liga NOS loves wingers. The league has 70 Prolific Wingers, more than any other. And there are 65 Offensive FullBacks. These numbers are insane , considering again that this league has only 18 teams.
- Build Up CBs are the most common type in all the leagues , except the Liga NOS, where The Destroyer taking over it probably, with more than doubling the number(there must be some DMFs in that number though)
- Only and only in Serie A , box-to-box players are held high . On the other 4 leagues , they are usually around 6–7th most common style. Interesting thing is , Liga NOS following the trend this time XD
- It’s extremely hard to find Defensive Full-backs anywhere
We will have a more detailed approach on the CFs and Midfielders
Fourth image is playing style distribution of CFs. “Goal Poacher” is the clear choice in any league, except La Liga where It’s so slightly overtaken by “Fox in the Box”. Liga NOS is once again the odd-stander with “Target Man” , but I’m pretty surprised to see that Target Man is not obsolete on the other leagues either. Except this dominant trio , Dummy Runners in Liga NOS and Hole Players in Ligue 1 are the only real challengers of the hegemony.
Fifth image is playing style distribution of midfielders.
- So surprised to see “Anchor Man” at the top for the Premier League. It’s not so different on other leagues either.
- “Prolific Winger” midfielders are really a unique characteristic of Premier League. The other leagues must be harboring LWFs and RWFs in that style or role mainly.
- I , again , would expect Hole Players to be more popular on Premier League but they seem to be way behind Ligue 1 and Serie A , barely matching La Liga on that matter. This can be explained by the unusual amount of Prolific Wingers and Creative Playmakers.
- Liga NOS has an insane amount of Destroyers , %25 more than the closest league , Ligue 1. Even more dramatic , remembering the 18-teams fact.
The Sixth&last image is another quality distribution. This time, it’s all about U23 players.
- Premier League is really showing the shiny platform it is , with 32 GoldBall and 4 BlackBall U23s . And the number of SilverBall players are not much behind the competition.
- Ligue 1 is pretty impressive with 61 SilverBalls , 12 GoldBalls and 1 Kylian Mbappe. As you may easily deduct , the SilverBalls in Ligue 1 are waiting to be transferred to Premier League and turn into Gold or Black . This dynamic explains a lot.
- Serie A has 55 SilverBalls and a decent 11 GoldBalls , even though way behind Premier League. De Ligt and Donnarumma are the only 2 BlackBalls.
- La Liga is really behind with 44 SilverBalls but they make up for it a little with 16 GoldBalls. But their 4 BlackBalls match the Premier League, thanks to the all-purchased trio from Barcelona(F.De Jong, Dembele and Arthur) and the home grown Mikel Oyarzabal.
- Liga NOS has 0 BlackBalls and 1 GoldBall and 8 SilverBalls on the side. It’s not much of a surprise as the teams are ruthlessly ransacked every summer and January transfer window for any possible particle of talent.
Really heartbroken that the Bundesliga is not in the game or in this data set. I’m sure that we would see some odd-standing facts , mostly in a good way. Maybe I should do so on a data set from Football Manager ??
As I was typing all this , I had this question form in my mind: With all the wingers and full-backs and Destroyers , has Liga NOS turned into a showdown of Counter Attacks ?
