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Modern football has redefined how teams organize, occupy, and manipulate space. Tactical evolution has turned space into one of the game’s most valuable assets. Controlling the ball is no longer enough. Teams must control the pitch, knowing when to compress or stretch it depending on the phase of play. From low defensive blocks that test the opponent’s patience to expansive attacking shapes that stretch opposition lines. Understanding spatial behavior has become a crucial objective for clubs, analysts, and coaching staffs.
With this in mind, Driblab presents Spatial Coverage, a new pack of metrics that quantifies a team's shape, line height, compactness, and width in different game phases. This tool is designed to analyze tactical patterns and collective structures with unprecedented accuracy.
Tactical Relevance of Spatial Metrics
For years, positional analysis has relied on visual interpretation. Arrigo, Driblab’s intelligent data product that combines tracking and event data, provides exact and contextualized measurements of how teams behave spatially throughout a match. With this enhanced perspective, Spatial Coverage introduces a set of key metrics that allow users to measure:
Accuracy and Data Reliability
Thanks to tracking technology, we at Driblab have been able to develop various models for our Arrigo product. These metrics have been designed with a very high level of accuracy, ensuring that each pressure event is identified and categorized with precision. This eliminates ambiguities in data interpretation and guarantees reliable analysis, which is essential for decision-making in high-performance environments.
This dual-layered system ensures maximum accuracy in calculating distances, team shapes, and structural changes throughout each phase of play. Every metric is backed by reliable, verified data, giving clubs and analysts full confidence in the insights provided.
Spatial Coverage Metrics
- Last Defender Distance
Distance between the last outfield defender (excluding goalkeeper) and their own goal line. Useful to assess line height and defensive risk.
- Defensive Line Distance
Average position of the deepest defensive line. Helps quantify how deep or aggressive the defensive block is.
- Full-Back Distance
Distance from both full-backs to their own goal, including their Y-position in possession. Reflects their involvement and structural positioning.
- Block Distance
Vertical distance between the deepest and most advanced outfield players. Direct indicator of block compactness or vertical stretching.
- Block Area
Area of the bounding box surrounding all outfield players. Measures how much space the team is occupying.
- Defensive Line Width (Out of Possession only)
Width of the most advanced defensive line. Indicates how much horizontal space the team covers when defending.
- Offensive Line Width (In Possession only)
Width of the attacking line in possession. Reveals how the team stretches the pitch to create space.
- Offensive Line Distance (In Possession only)
Vertical distance between own goal and the offensive line. Highlights how deep or high the team positions itself when attacking.
With this new metric pack, Driblab continues to expand the scope of tactical analysis, offering tools to monitor, compare, and optimize spatial structures with total precision. Spatial Coverage brings clarity to traditionally subjective concepts like block compactness, attacking width, or positional depth.
If you're a club, analyst, or football professional looking to integrate these insights into your workflow, contact us for a personalized demo. We’d be glad to show you the full potential of Spatial Coverage.
