Skip to content

Team Style Map

Every Premiership side since 2000/01, placed by how much it dominated and how physical it was, and sorted into four styles by K-means. Pick a club, then a season, to see the team-seasons most like it.

  • Dominant
  • Middle
  • Outshot, clean
  • Outshot, physical

How to read it

  • Each dot is one club's season, from 2000/01 to 2025/26: 310 in all.
  • Further right, the more it dominated: more shots, shots on target and corners than it allowed. Further left, the more it was outshot.
  • Higher up, the more physical: more fouls and yellow cards. Lower down, fewer.
  • The centre lines are the average side of that season, so every season is compared with its own league, not with other eras.
  • The colour is its style, the group K-means put it in. Dots of one colour sit together because those seasons were played alike.
  • The chosen club's seasons are the larger dots; the selected season has a ring around it.

Season

Most alike

The five closest team-seasons on all eight stats.

    How it works

    Each team-season has eight numbers per game: shots, shots on target and corners for and against, fouls and yellow cards, each measured against that season's average side. K-means sorted the 310 team-seasons into the four groups whose members sit closest to their group's average style.

    • Dominant, 50 team-seasons, 2.29 points a game: almost all Celtic and Rangers.
    • Middle, 102, 1.35 points a game: close to level on everything.
    • Outshot, clean, 79, 1.11 points a game, and outshot, physical, 79, 1.10: outshot just as badly, but the physical sides foul and get booked far more, for no more points.

    Where it goes wrong

    • Eight stats aren't a whole style: there's no possession, pressing or chance quality in this data.
    • A season average hides change, such as a new manager in January.
    • The two axes are a summary for drawing; "most alike" uses all eight stats, so close dots aren't always the closest matches.

    How it was built and tested: Four ways to play. K-means and team styles

    Results data from football-data.co.uk. These figures are for analysis and education.