It has become an increasingly common sight in football broadcasting.
这已经成为足球广播中越来越常见的景象。
In the 50th minute of Manchester City’s trip to Liverpool, an in-game graphic popped up on the screen to reveal which player had made the fewest touches in the game so far.
在曼城客场挑战利物浦的第50分钟，屏幕上弹出了一个游戏中的图形，显示出哪位球员到目前为止在比赛中触球次数最少。
At that point, Diogo Jota’s 17 were the fewest, with Liverpool’s front three all among the bottom five.
在这一点上，迪奥戈-约塔的17次是最少的，利物浦的前三名都在倒数第五位。
The question to ask when seeing such statistics is — is that good or bad?
看到这样的统计数据时，要问的问题是--这是好还是坏？
When using data in football, one of the key duties of care is to ensure it is surrounded in context, to better understand why these statistics are useful in the game. So with this in mind, how many touches should a forward have in a game of football? And importantly, do such numbers matter when assessing a forward’s performance?
在足球比赛中使用数据时，关键的职责之一是确保它被包围在背景中，以更好地理解为什么这些统计数据在比赛中是有用的。因此，考虑到这一点，一个前锋在一场足球比赛中应该有多少次触球？重要的是，在评估一个前锋的表现时，这些数字是否重要？
As a reminder, Opta defines touches as the “sum of all events where a player touches the ball”. For example, if a player controls the ball, gets it out of his feet, then passes it to a team-mate, that would be one touch.
作为提醒，Opta将触球定义为 "球员接触到球的所有事件的总和"。例如，如果一名球员控制了球，把球从他的脚下拿出来，然后把球传给一名队友，这就是一次触球。
Without opening this Pandora’s box too widely, there are, of course, many factors that influence how many touches a forward has within a game. First, their involvement will be down to how much possession their team has as a whole, which is influenced by the quality of the opposition they face.
如果不把这个潘多拉盒子开得太大，当然有很多因素会影响一个前锋在一场比赛中的触球次数。首先，他们的参与程度将取决于他们的球队整体的控球率，而这又受到他们所面对的对手的质量的影响。
Second, the number of touches a forward typically has depends on the role they have within the team and within the game. Last season, the average touches for a forward player (with at least 900 minutes played) in the Premier League was 42.2 touches per 90, but that ranged from 24.6 to 70.7 per 90.
第二，一个前锋的触球次数通常取决于他们在球队和比赛中的角色。上赛季，英超联赛中前锋球员（至少出场900分钟）的平均触球次数为每90分钟42.2次，但这一数字从每90分钟24.6次到70.7次不等。
Let’s take an obvious example with two contrasting Premier League forwards in Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino and Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy. As you can see below, compared to Vardy, Firmino has averaged more than double the number of overall touches and touches in the attacking third per 90 since the start of last season.
让我们举一个明显的例子，利物浦的菲尔米诺和莱斯特城的杰米-瓦尔迪这两个对比鲜明的英超前锋。正如你在下面看到的，与瓦尔迪相比，菲尔米诺从上个赛季开始，平均每90分钟的总触球次数和在进攻三区的触球次数都超过了一倍。
The Brazilian also edges Vardy for the number of touches he has in the opposition box, yet Vardy’s stylistic profile is far more of a clinical finisher who gets on the end of attacks, while Firmino is more involved in his team’s build-up play. This helps to explain why Vardy has a better goal (and expected goal) rate per 90 when comparing the two, despite having far fewer touches.
巴西人在对方禁区内的触球次数也领先于瓦尔迪，但瓦尔迪的风格特征更像是一个临床终结者，能在进攻中取得胜利，而菲尔米诺则更多地参与到球队的建立过程中。这有助于解释为什么瓦尔迪每90分钟的进球（和预期进球）率更高，尽管他的触球次数少得多。
Both players are nominally centre-forwards, but Vardy, despite having one of the fewest touches per 90 of any forward player in the past five years — only Jermain Defoe averaged fewer during his time at Bournemouth — is one of the highest goalscorers in the Premier League during this period. Only Harry Kane (76) and Mohamed Salah (84) have scored more non-penalty goals than Vardy’s 61 since the start of the 2017-18 season.
这两名球员名义上都是中锋，但瓦尔迪尽管是过去五年中每90次触球次数最少的前锋球员之一--只有杰曼-迪福在伯恩茅斯效力期间平均触球次数较少--是这期间英超联赛中进球最多的球员之一。自2017-18赛季开始以来，只有哈里-凯恩（76）和穆罕默德-萨拉赫（84）的非罚球进球数比瓦尔迪的61球多。
Meanwhile, Firmino’s touches per 90 have been one of the highest averages for a centre-forward in recent years, but he has a more modest goal return of 38 in the Premier League during the same period. Both players are crucial No 9s for the way their teams play but in hugely different ways.
同时，菲尔米诺每90分钟的触球次数是近年来中锋中最高的之一，但他在同一时期的英超联赛中的进球数为38个，比较一般。这两名球员都是他们球队比赛方式的关键9号，但方式大不相同。
In truth, it brings into question whether positions are still the best way to label players in their team when a player’s role is actually more representative in relation to their playing style. Perhaps a topic to return to at a later date…
事实上，当一名球员的角色与他们的比赛风格相关，实际上更具有代表性时，这就带来了一个问题，即位置是否仍然是他们球队中球员的最佳标签。也许这是一个以后再讨论的话题......
With the above in mind, it is more useful to compare within a player’s output rather than between different players. More specifically, it is useful to see how their involvement might change over time.
考虑到上述情况，在一个球员的产出中进行比较，而不是在不同的球员之间进行比较，是更有用的。更具体地说，看他们的参与度如何随着时间的推移而变化是很有用的。
Let’s turn to another running example from last season with Kane, whose involvement in Tottenham’s play has been questioned this season. Looking within a 10-game window during the first half of last season, you can see how Kane’s number of touches varied from game to game. For example, he was heavily involved in Spurs’ 3-3 draw with West Ham United, with 70 touches in that game.
让我们来看看上赛季凯恩的另一个运行例子，本赛季他在热刺的比赛中的参与度一直受到质疑。在上赛季前半段的10场比赛中，你可以看到凯恩的触球次数在每场比赛中的变化。例如，在热刺3-3战平西汉姆联的比赛中，他大量参与了比赛，在那场比赛中有70次触球。
You can see above that Kane’s involvement drops against higher quality opposition like Manchester City and Chelsea, but dropped to its lowest within that 10-game window against Arsenal, Crystal Palace and Liverpool, where Kane’s touches were less than half the number that he had against West Ham. However, it’s crucial to note that Kane scored two goals across these three games, making the most of the chances he had within crucial areas.
你可以看到，凯恩在面对曼城和切尔西这样质量较高的对手时，参与度有所下降，但在对阵阿森纳、水晶宫和利物浦的10场比赛中，凯恩的触球次数还不到对阵西汉姆时的一半。然而，关键是要注意，凯恩在这三场比赛中打进了两个球，在关键区域内充分利用了他的机会。
It goes to reinforce the point — fewer touches does not necessarily mean a forward is less likely to score at the top end, or indeed that their performance is worse than others.
这就强化了一个观点--较少的触球并不一定意味着一个前锋在高端得分的可能性较低，或者确实意味着他们的表现比其他人差。
This brings us neatly on to the locations of a player’s touches. As shown above, we can look at the event data to broadly explore where a player’s touches were — ie, in the attacking third and in the opposition box.
这就把我们带到了球员的触球位置上。如上图所示，我们可以从事件数据中大致探讨球员的触球位置--即在进攻区和对方禁区内。
But we can be more specific by splitting those touches into zones across the pitch and see how they have changed between seasons. Let’s use a different example with West Ham’s Michail Antonio, who has scored five goals in six games so far this season.
但我们可以更具体一些，把这些触球在整个球场上分成几个区域，看看它们在各赛季之间的变化。让我们用西汉姆的米哈伊尔-安东尼奥举个不同的例子，本赛季到目前为止，他在六场比赛中打进了五个球。
Antonio’s underlying numbers did look strong from last season, but you can see below that a contributing factor towards his hot streak in front of goal is that he is getting touches in more dangerous areas of the pitch. While he may only have played six games so far this season, Antonio is averaging 2.5 more touches in the area per 90, and overall more touches in central areas of the opponent’s half.
安东尼奥的基本数据与上赛季相比确实很强，但你可以看到，他在门前的火热表现的一个因素是，他在球场上更危险的区域得到了触球。虽然本赛季到目前为止他可能只打了6场比赛，但安东尼奥平均每90分钟在区域内多触球2.5次，而且总体上在对手半场的中心区域多触球。
It simply adds a little more context to help understand a forward’s involvement in the game. It may not be about the raw number of touches that they have, but crucially where those touches are on the pitch.
它只是增加了一点背景，以帮助理解一个前锋对比赛的参与。这可能不是关于他们的原始触球次数，但关键是这些触球在球场上的位置。
Among forward players, it can also be useful to add yet another layer of context to see how these players are using their touches to directly contribute towards the primary objective of football — scoring a goal.
在前锋球员中，增加另一层背景也是有用的，看看这些球员是如何利用他们的触球来直接促进实现足球的主要目标--进球。
To do this, we can look at how many shots a player has relative to the total touches they have within a game. When plotting this you can start to tease out the different types of forwards in the Premier League and how their stylistic profile contributes to their team.
要做到这一点，我们可以看看一个球员的射门次数与他们在一场比赛中的总触球次数的关系。当绘制这个图时，你可以开始找出英超联赛中不同类型的前锋，以及他们的风格特征对球队的贡献。
Below, you can see wide forwards like Salah, Sadio Mane and Mason Greenwood see a lot of the ball for their possession-dominant sides, and also frequently get a shot away at an above-average rate.
在下面，你可以看到像萨拉赫、萨迪奥-马内和梅森-格林伍德这样的大前锋在他们的控球优势下看到很多球，而且还经常以高于平均水平的速度获得射门。
Meanwhile, you have a totally different type of forward in Patrick Bamford, Vardy and Dominic Calvert-Lewin who, of course, play centrally and take fewer touches in the game yet also shoot at an above-average rate among their peers — being more efficient with their touches in turning them into goalscoring opportunities.
同时，你还有帕特里克-班福德、瓦尔迪和多米尼克-卡尔弗特-勒温等完全不同类型的前锋，当然，他们踢中锋，在比赛中的触球次数较少，但在同龄人中的射门率也高于平均水平--在将触球转化为进球机会方面，他们的效率更高。
Also note Mason Mount out there on his own as an outlier, with an unrivalled volume of touches per 90 among the cohort. This is perhaps influenced by his hybrid midfield/attacking role last season where he played increasingly behind the central striker in Tuchel’s 3-4-2-1 system during the second half of the last campaign.
还要注意到梅森-蒙特作为一个异类出现在那里，他每90分钟的触球量在同龄人中是无与伦比的。这也许是受他上赛季的中场/进攻混合角色的影响，在上赛季后半段图赫尔的3-4-2-1系统中，他越来越多地在中锋后面踢球。
As you would imagine, this group shifts slightly when playing against the so-called top sides in Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Leicester City — as the top seven teams with the highest points tally in the past five seasons.
正如你所想象的那样，在与曼城、利物浦、切尔西、曼联、托特纳姆热刺、阿森纳和莱斯特城这些所谓的顶级球队比赛时，这个小组会发生轻微的转变--因为在过去五个赛季中，积分最高的前七支球队。
Although it may be a smaller sample of games to go from, you can see which players maintain a degree of consistency in the bigger games and whose involvement might be blunted at the top end when pitted against higher-quality opposition. It’s worth noting Liverpool’s incessant front three clustered on the right-hand side, who maintain their above-average rate of shots and touches irrespective of the opposition they face.
虽然这可能是一个较小的比赛样本，但你可以看到哪些球员在更大的比赛中保持了一定程度的一致性，以及在对阵更高质量的对手时，谁的参与可能会被削弱的。值得注意的是，利物浦的前场三人组聚集在右侧，无论他们面对的是什么对手，他们都能保持高于平均水平的射门和触球率。
The player whose touches per shot change the most when playing against the top sides? Since last season, that title falls to Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has taken nearly 14 more touches on average before getting a shot away against the top sides compared with the rest of the league.
在对阵顶级球队时，每次射门的触球次数变化最大的球员是谁？自上赛季以来，这个头衔落在了阿森纳的皮埃尔-埃米尼克-奥巴梅扬身上，与联赛其他球队相比，他在对阵顶级球队时，平均多花了近14次触球机会。
So, how many touches should a forward be having in a game of football? There is no simple answer. It depends on their role in the team, who they are playing against, what they are doing with their touches and where they are on the pitch. Just look at those differences between Firmino and Vardy at the start of the piece.
那么，在一场足球比赛中，一个前锋应该有多少次触球？这没有简单的答案。这取决于他们在球队中的角色，他们的对手是谁，他们的触球动作是什么，以及他们在球场上的位置。看看文章开头菲尔米诺和瓦尔迪之间的差异就知道了。
Some forwards don’t need a huge number of touches to make a difference for their team when it comes to goalscoring, while others do to fulfil a different role in joining up other parts of the team and creating chances for their team-mates.
当涉及到进球时，一些前锋不需要大量的触球来为他们的球队做出改变，而另一些前锋则要履行不同的角色，与球队的其他部分联合，为他们的队友创造机会。
Yes, you are probably thinking, “You took all of that from a single in-game graphic during the weekend’s game?” Perhaps you are right to think so, but these topics are a good opportunity to dive into the nuances or pitfalls of using data in football, and the importance of surrounding it in context.
是的，你可能在想，"你从周末的比赛中的一个游戏中的图形中得到了所有这些？" 也许你这么想是对的，但这些话题是一个很好的机会，可以深入了解在足球中使用数据的细微差别或陷阱，以及围绕数据的重要性。
(Photos: Getty Images)
(图片: Getty Images)