Identifying Team Playing Styles Across Phases of Play: A User-Specific Cluster Framework

Investigating team performance at a granular level within matches allows for the analysis of phase-specific team playing styles. The cluster framework described in this paper assists in identifying phase-specific team playing styles within team invasion sports that are vital for guiding match analysis. This paper develops a novel clustering framework, proposing a composite clustering assessment index for selecting the optimal feature transformation technique, clustering algorithm and number of clusters. The proposed composite index allows the integration of subject matter expert knowledge, ensuring that the resulting clusters are chosen optimally in alignment with the analysis goals. The clustering framework is applied in the context of Australian football to identify an interpretable number of clusters that represent the inherent grouping of team playing styles during match phases.