I’ve read many football books this year, including Inverting The Pyramid, by Jonathan Wilson, which introduced me to Charles Hughes, Director of Coaching for the The Football Association. Hughes identified ‘POMO’ (Positions Of Maximum Opportunity), showing that targeting these zones increases goal-scoring chances. His work didn’t focus on crosses, but it sparked my interest in how certain areas of the pitch can make crosses more effective.
With access to Hudl Statsbomb open data, I analyzed the best positions to cross from by looking at which crosses resulted in a goal from the very next action. I averaged out the starting and ending positions and these were the results:
Left side: [109.00874317 15.11530055] [111.62896175 39.66338798]
Right side: [107.86407767 65.55194175] [111.94466019 39.87087379]
These findings highlight that crosses from deep, narrow positions—whether on the left or right—are more likely to directly result in goals, particularly when the ball is delivered to the central regions of the penalty box.
The fact that this isn’t a symmetrical plot was interesting to me. Have you should considered which foot the crossing player is dominant with? Maybe do a strong foot vs week foot analysis for each side?
Damn, turns out the best place to play a cross is the place you’re supposed to play a cross.
![[OC] Optimal positions for delivering and targeting crosses in football](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/gei1ednhph1e1-1080x1024.gif)
3 comments
I’ve read many football books this year, including Inverting The Pyramid, by Jonathan Wilson, which introduced me to Charles Hughes, Director of Coaching for the The Football Association. Hughes identified ‘POMO’ (Positions Of Maximum Opportunity), showing that targeting these zones increases goal-scoring chances. His work didn’t focus on crosses, but it sparked my interest in how certain areas of the pitch can make crosses more effective.
With access to Hudl Statsbomb open data, I analyzed the best positions to cross from by looking at which crosses resulted in a goal from the very next action. I averaged out the starting and ending positions and these were the results:
Left side: [109.00874317 15.11530055] [111.62896175 39.66338798]
Right side: [107.86407767 65.55194175] [111.94466019 39.87087379]
These findings highlight that crosses from deep, narrow positions—whether on the left or right—are more likely to directly result in goals, particularly when the ball is delivered to the central regions of the penalty box.
Source: [https://github.com/statsbomb/open-data](https://github.com/statsbomb/open-data)
Tool: Python
The fact that this isn’t a symmetrical plot was interesting to me. Have you should considered which foot the crossing player is dominant with? Maybe do a strong foot vs week foot analysis for each side?
Damn, turns out the best place to play a cross is the place you’re supposed to play a cross.
The data is neat though
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