#statszone-guide

Intended for both first and long time users, the posts below will take you through a number of the app’s features and unique uses with insight into the decisions made when designing the product.

Got a question or would you like a topic covered? Get in touch. 

Totally new to Stats Zone? Start here.

How to analyse a match

The Match Timeline, balancing simplicity and depth

The First Genuine Second Screen Experience

Coming soon - focus on shots (and why Stats Zone doesn’t provide “expected goals” stats), passes and how to show off your own Stats Zone analysis. 

Posts will be announced on Twitter: @tiki_taka_co

I love watching football. That may seem easy to understand, but I have to be more specific. I love *watching* football - for matches I'm interested in I want it to be as close to a cinematic experience as possible. And just as I've struggled to *watch* a match in a pub over conversations, hard to see or hear screens and trying to get served, the challenge of ignoring the distractions of Twitter, using Stats Zone and everything else iPhone has meant focusing on a match becomes difficult no matter what the context. It sounds like I'm not alone.

The second screen has been hyped for years, so much that you'd think the tech hipsters had created amazing second screen experiences we all use day to day. But the truth is that there are no second screen football apps. All the tapping, typing, swiping, liking, snapping and app-ing while watching football become your first screen and, since first is first, the match becomes the second screen.

Stats Zone on iPad fixes that with the first glanceable second screen experience. An innovation designed to keep you informed without being distracted from the essential activity of watching the match itself. 

Simply open Stats Zone, tap on the live match you're watching, prop your iPad up, and hit the play button. The app will continuously scroll through shots, passes and all of the other Stats Zone sections while also automatically downloading real-time match updates. During breaks in play, you can simply glance at the second screen to see the latest stats and chalkboards without having to open apps, tap through menus, wait for downloads and all the usual distractions and interactions.

If you want to jump to a particular section, no problem. The second screen mode will just pick up from wherever you leave it. Or of course you can pause it to go back to normal Stats Zone use if you want to explore something in more depth.

Multitasking Support

On the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2 or iPad Mini 4 it's possible to use Split View to display multiple apps at the same time. This works great with Stats Zone's second screen mode.

Using Twitter alongside Stats Zone is going to be a popular choice. The Twitter app I recommend is Tweetbot and it provides a way for your Twitter stream to automatically update (open Tweetbot, go to Settings by tapping on your Twitter profile image, then under "Streaming" enable both "Steam" and "Pin to Top").

Follow all the stats, chalkboards and Clatz gifs without raising a finger.

"Finally"

The first version of anything is hopefully also the worst version that will exist, but I hope Stats Zone for iPad is going to add to your enjoyment of Euro 2016 and become a habit when watching live football. Be sure to let us know your thoughts and suggestions.

"It was a game of two halves." "The match ebbed and flowed." "They started well but tired as the match went on."

Context matters. It's interesting to see that one team had twice as many shots on target as the other in the full time stats, but it's even more interesting if all of those attempts happen in the second half. Or how possession changed after a deep-lying playmaker goes off injured.

To understand a match, the timeline is the first element to turn to. If Stats Zone had to be reduced to a single feature, the timeline would be what remains.

At first glance, Stats Zone's match timeline provides a high level introduction into the story of a match. It starts with kickoff on the left, full time or the current minute for live matches on the right and in between maps out the key events (displayed by icons). Further inspection sees indicators for every shot and a possession graph with the home team displayed in the top half and the away team on the bottom. As you'll see below, it's also the way for you to interact with and interrogate the match data to figure out when the match was really won or lost.

When you've selected a particular match, the timeline is always within view and on the iPad "Matches" tab you can quickly scan all the timelines for a day's matches before tapping to go into more detail.

How to read the timeline

Goals. Missed penalties. Yellow and red cards. Substitutions. In just a second or two you'll see when those happened - with the home team on the top half, away team on the bottom.

Look further and you'll see vertical blue (on target), red (off target) and grey (blocked) lines showing when every shot was taken. The long blue graph line running across the entire timeline is the graph of possession for every 5 minutes of the match. The further away it is from the centre horizontal line, the more possession dominant that team had at that time. In the example above, FC Bayern München dominated possession from kickoff until they scored twice in extra time in their 2016 UCL Round of 16 match against Juventus.

How to use the timeline

By just looking at it you can see if a team didn't have a shot in the first half or if the 3-2 win was a comeback from 2-0 down or a difficult finish to a match under control after conceding two late goals.

But the timeline also drives what's displayed in the rest of the app. You can select any part of a match to limit the data displayed to that period only.

Tap once to select first half, second half or a period of extra time

Double tap to limit to the 15 minutes around the touch point (this is also automatically bound to the start or end of a half)

Triple tap for that to be a 5 minute period

If none of that is granular enough, you can pinch with two fingers or with one finger drag the left or right handle to select exactly the minute to minute period you're interested in

Tap the “X” button to reset to the full match selection

The data used in the app’s stats and chalkboard images will always filter to only the events in whatever match period you select on the timeline. The shot chalkboards only show the shots that happened within that time, the defensive chalkboards only show the defensive actions within that time, the listings of stats only show the counts of events that happened within that time.

And if you tap on stat counts or use the compare feature to see a specific side by side analysis view the timeline period you've selected will be passed through where of course you can refine again or choose different time periods for the two chalkboards - this is a great way to compare how performance changes across different spells of a match. For instance, comparing the home team's first half shots in the left chalkboards against the same team's second half shots in the right chalkboard.

The final trick you'll see the match timeline pull is displaying the current time being shown when using the chalkboard's animated "play" feature. An orange line on the match timeline signals when the events being displayed on the chalkboard took place, a vital visual cue.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

The best tools provide a simple and accessible way to achieve a task, but also reveal additional layers for more complex use. Stats Zone's match timeline does exactly that.

I've never understood why people who say "the result is all that matters" bother to watch a match, it's a total waste of their time. The process matters. Did the result reflect the game? Which team created the most chances? How did each team play? Were there any stand out performers?

The depth of data in Stats Zone may seem intimidating at first, but it also provides great ways to get a quick grip of these types of questions without being overwhelmed. Below I'll walk through how I use the app to get a quick feel for how a match went or is going - spending 10 to 30 seconds on each or just a couple of the below will give you infinitely more understanding of a match than just the score and scorers.

1. Match Timeline

The icons on the timeline show when goals were scored, penalties missed, cards issued and substitutions made. The next level of detail shows every shot in the match represented by a vertical line (blue for on target, red for off target, grey for blocked just like on the chalkboards) and the blue graph line running horizontally shows the possession percentage at each stage.

Already from this top level data we get a useful snapshot - did one team dominate possession? Did a team take shots or score when they had more possession or against the run of play? Does it look like substitutions or cards in the match made a difference in terms of goals/shots/possession? Did the goals all happen at a specific time of the match? Was it 3-0 before it was 3-3 or who led in the match, when and for how long?

2. Key Events

After scanning the timeline, it's useful to jump to the Key Events to get a bit more detail.

For goals, Stats Zone provides information on whether goals were scored from a set piece, regular play or a fast break and other information such as if it has been designated by Opta as a "Big Chance" (a situation where a player should reasonably expected to score). The buildup chalkboards also show if goals were scored at the end of an intricate passing buildup from the back, a direct pass beyond a slow defence or maybe from a cross on the wing of a weak full back.

There's also detail on what cards were awarded for (including fouls, dissent, time wasting, dives, persistent infringement, professional fouls and of course unforgivable excessive celebrations), whether substitutions were tactical or due to injury and how much injury time was played at the end of each half.

If you want to know who scored, you've got lots of places to turn to. If you want to know how they scored, you'll go to Stats Zone.

3. Shots

Next up, the shots chalkboard. This shows where shots were taken from, whether they were a free kick or penalty (a square at the base of the shot), a header (a triangle) or a normal open play shot (a dot). The quantity and location of shots taken together provide an interesting story into the quality of the shots - did a team take a lot of shots but all from outside the penalty area? Did a team have lots of shots around the six yard box but not score? Were the goals scored from unlikely positions?

Looking down to the stats themselves - the "Big Chances" stat gives another layer to who might have deserved to win the match and the Top Players list shows which players continually missed the target and who was efficient in front of goal.

4. Passes

The chalkboards instantly give you a look at whether this was a match dominated by one team or more balanced. Equally, it informs whether teams played direct or short, whether they were reasonably balanced across the width of the pitch or focused on one wing and how often they managed to pass the ball into good attacking areas.

Glancing at the "Attacking Third" and "Inside Penalty Area" stats gives even more detail on that and (coupled with your knowledge of the quantity and quality of shots taken) you have a clear idea of the type of attacks each team was able to construct.

5. Player Influence, Attack, Defence and Fouls

Flicking through each of these screens fills out the picture - which players were most involved? How much and where did each team attack from? Were all their defensive actions deep and near the penalty area or did they also try to win the ball back in the opposition half? Did they foul much at all? If so, where?

Taking a minute or two to glance through some or all of the above is obviously not going to replace watching a match - but it will give you a great starting point to discuss and explore the performances of teams and players further. And if it's a match you've been watching it might challenge some of the ideas you have about who "deserved to win" - can you justify your opinion against the facts?

The result is not all that matters.