Chelsea 2019-20 Statistical Dashboard

So You Say You Like Stats...

The goal with dashboards (“one-sheets”, if you’re old-school) is to get as much relevant data as you can in one viewing, without making it unreadable or unpleasant to use. Too little data, and it’s the equivalent of a Fisher Price “My First Dashboard” toy. Too much, and it becomes an eye chart.

One of the biggest challenges with a dashboard is making it all fit while looking good, and being easy to read and use. Font sizes, lining things up, color choices, how big to make different elements, even the order and layout to make for optimal reading and utilizing. There are actually several books out there in the world on this very topic, and I’ve at least skimmed most of them. I won’t brag about my work too much, I still feel there are a lot of VERY GOOD folks out there far better than I am, but I do get excited about the things I do and build, and let me tell you, I’m pretty excited about this.

Let. Me. Blow. Your. Mind.

I originally started putting this together using last year’s data, so I had a full dataset and could see how things would turn out after a full season was over. And that initial version was pretty cool. LOTS O’ DATA. And then I cleaned up all the ugly stuff you realize after you stare at something you made for about an hour. And then I inserted the new stuff from yesterday’s match. And THEN I fixed all the things that didn’t work right with only one match worth of data. By the way, for below, keep in mind these sample images are from the 2018-19 one I built, so some things have slightly changed (all changes for the better, I promise). Here are the sections it includes:

• Premier League Match Tracker — This weekly measure includes both a running points line chart with heat map, and a Win/Draw/Loss vertical bar chart.

• Cup Data — This is a big table showing the potential full progression for all cups, with date, opponent, scores, and results. Right now the only actual data we have is the UEFA Super (DUPER) Cup, but the rest is all there, waiting to be populated.

• Premier League Results by Opponents Tracker — This will show each result for our league opponents, both home and away, with our score and theirs. Handy to see how we did at a glance.

• Player Statistical Data - This isn’t too in-depth, I have something in mind for that down the road, this is simply showing: Goals, Expected Goals, Shots, Open Play Shots, Assists, Expected Assists, Key Passes, and Open Play Key Passes:

• Additional Metrics — Several other team league metric sections, including Shooting, Ball Control, Passing, Scoring, Defending, Positioning. These are quick breakdowns of different sets of team data.

All together, at first glance it might seem a bit busy, but it reads really well, and I think, and others I’ve tested it with think, it’s really well laid out and useful.

Okay, So You Think You Can Data, But Can You Last?

The goal here is to update this weekly, and the Cup Tracker after Cup matches, too. I’ll update the Tableau Dashboard each time, which is here:

https://public.tableau.com/profile/robertnhanson#!/vizhome/ChelseaDashboard2019-20/Chelsea2019-20Dashboard

I’m also planning to post after each match (after the data is available to update, of course) a snapshot along with a brief bit on some stat updates as related to the dashboard. Nothing too comprehensive about the match itself, but rather what’s new in terms of the season as a whole, and where we are.

As always, I love feedback, whether I agree with it or not, and I would love for some feedback on this.

Here’s the latest, and first, snapshot for the 2019-20 season: