adidas create new player type - The Engine

adidas create new player type - The Engine

Adidas and Opta have worked two years together to define a new type of player - The Engine. The Engine is a player which runs from box-to-box from the first minute until the final whistle. Opta and Adidas produced a mathematical algorithm which defines the perfect Engine player.

Javi Martinez (Bayern München), Dani Alves (FC Barcelona), Daniele De Rossi (AS Roma) and Ezequiel Lavezzi (Paris SG) will be faces of the new nitrocharge Boot series because they fit best the profile of 'The Engine'. We think there are also players like Sami Khedira which would the exact player type described by 'The Engine', but he is under contract with Nike so he gets the CTR360 Boots designed for perfect control.

The Engine - The mathematical algorithm explained

Adidas was working together with Opta to make an mathematical calculation to find out which footballer is the perfect Engine. Certain indicators will be measured every week(work rate, pitch coverage, and on / off ball statistics) to score out players out of 100 points, which is the maximun score a player can get.

n describes the number of indicators, while w(i) is the factor of each indicator and x(i) is the player score at each indicator. There are 4 different indicators now, describing the Work Rate, Pitch Coverage, what kind of actions they had off the ball and on the ball. It's very important to see which actions a player have over the complete 90 minutes and if he have worse or better phases.

1. Work Rate

Work Rate looks at how involved each player is during the course of a match, both overall and how consistent they are. If a player have a hihg number of touches constantly he will score better then players who are not involved in the match sometimes during the game.

The Work Rate is composed of passes in relation to team passes, the total number of passes, the minutes played, attacking and devensive touches.

2. Pitch Coverage

Players who want to be 'The Engine' need to be involved in situations on a large area of the pitch over 90 minutes to get a higher score.

The Pitch coverage is composed of the x and y coordinates of all player events and the coordinates of attacking and devensive events as well as the time the player made the action.

3. On the Ball

On the Ball rating system is defined by the success of their actions on the ball like passes, crosses, shots, dribbles and event coordinates.

Completing a pass into the opposition’s box will positively affect a players score more than the same pass in their own half, while infrequently events like goals won't influence the rating strongly.

4. Off the Ball

Off the Ball describes the success of a player in situations when the own team is not in possesion. It's being rated by tackles, interceptions, blocks/saves, aerials, clearances and again the coordinates where this happended on the pitch.

Players identified as The Engine

The new adidas Nitrocharge Boot was released and we can see which players adidas identified as #TheEngine. Next to the faces of the new boot silo Dani Alves, Lars Bender, Javi Martinez, De Rossi, Xabi Alonso and Lavezzi adidas gave the new Nitrocharge Boot players you may not have associated with wearing the new adidas boot silo. Even goalkeepers like Manuel Neuer and Timo Hildebrand are wearing the new Nitrocharge Boot. How they were identified as the Engine? Let us know in the comments box.