About This Site
A working notebook for football data analysis
Touchline is where match analysis sits next to the models behind it. The analysis stream breaks down games, tactics, and player performance with event and tracking data. The data stream documents the methods — expected-goals models, scouting metrics, pipelines, and visualizations — used to get there.
Match, tactical, and player breakdowns
Game reviews and tactical notes built on event and tracking data — pressing, build-up, set pieces, and chance quality.
Data & ModelsThe models and metrics behind the analysis
Expected-goals models, scouting metrics, data pipelines, and visualization experiments — how the numbers get made.
Latest Post
Watching the Match Is the Best Way to Understand Football — But Data Closes the Loop
Watching match footage is still the most authentic way to understand how a team plays and what a player can truly do. Nothing replaces sitting through 90 minutes to feel the rhy...
Huiyang Mao
Latest Writing
Recent posts across both tracks
Reading a World Cup Final Through Passing Data
Reading a World Cup Final through passing data — and what data viz can (and can’t) do. I used StatsBomb’s ...
Building a Simple Expected Goals Model
Expected goals (xG) is the single most useful number in football analytics. It answers a simple question: g...