A very simple, but very effective bit of work by ESPN’s Albert Larcada shows how the Welsh man has become such a threat.
While football still lags behind many sports in terms of analytics, it is rapidly gaining ground. The nature of the sport makes it much harder to analyse than baseball or American football but some clever folk are pulling some very clear information from the data available.
One of those clever folk is EPSN’s Albert Larcada. An analytics expert for the station in the US, he turned his attention to Gareth Bale earlier this week and by mapping all the Welshman’s touches over the last three seasons, he has brilliantly shown just how much his game has expanded over the past three years.
From being almost exclusively a left-wing hugger in the 2010-11 season, he has morphed into a player that plays much more centrally, and as a result, is much more dangerous.
Anyone who watched Spurs last season will have noticed just what a fulcrum he was but the data proves it in spectacular, indisputable fashion.
Gareth Bale’s progression from a left winger to a more central player over the past three seasons… http://t.co/1lMM8XtIWT
— Albert Larcada (@adlarcada_ESPN) August 26, 2013
We bet Daniel Levy has this graphic is his briefcase just so he can askReal Madrid’s Florentino Perez for a few more million.
