Analytics

Spreading the cost of a transfer fee across the length of the player's contract for accounting purposes. A £100m signing on a 5-year deal costs £20m per year on the books, not £100m upfront. It matters for Financial Fair Play and profit/loss calculations. Clubs use it to make expensive signings look more affordable. Understanding amortisation explains a lot of weird transfer behaviour.

An unbroken chain of passes before the ball is lost. Sequences can be long (tiki-taka style) or short (direct football). Teams are judged on how many long sequences they produce and what they do with them. A 15-pass sequence that ends with a sideways ball is different from one that ends with a shot. The quality of the sequence's endpoint matters as much as the length.

A stat that values how much a player increases their team's chance of scoring through their actions. Unlike xG, which only looks at shots, xT gives every zone on the pitch a threat value. Move the ball from a low-value zone to a high-value zone - through passes, carries, or dribbles - and you generate xT. Useful for rating midfielders and ball-playing defenders who progress play without necessarily shooting or assisting.

The zones between the central area and the flanks, roughly where the edges of the penalty box would extend up the pitch. Important because they sit in the gaps between defenders - between centre-back and full-back, or between central and wide midfielders. Players who can receive here are hard to mark and have good angles to face goal or play passes. A big concept in modern positional play.

The xG value of chances created. If you play a pass that leads to a shot worth 0.3 xG, you get 0.3 xA. It measures the quality of chances you create, separate from whether your teammate finishes them. A player with high xA but low actual assists has teammates letting them down. A player with lots of assists but low xA is getting lucky with their finishers. Useful for evaluating creative players fairly.

How well a player keeps the ball under pressure. Good ball retention means they don't lose it often, even in the tightest of spaces. It's different from just passing accuracy because it accounts for pressure, body position, and shielding. Players with good retention can receive in difficult situations and give teammates time to move. Possession teams value it highly.

A way of adjusting stats to account for how much the ball a team has. A team with 70% possession will naturally have more passes, so comparing their passing numbers directly to a team with 40% possession is misleading. Possession-adjusted stats divide by possession share to give a fairer comparison. Useful for evaluating defensive actions especially - making fewer tackles might just mean you have the ball more often.