Glossary

This glossary serves two purposes — primarily, to make your life easier by directly linking you to the data without you having to go through my twitter timeline. Secondly, it will also aim to serve as a glossary, defining some of the data labels that may be confusing to some.

Links

English Premier League

MetaData — Season 20/21 here
ShotData — Season 20/21 here

Spanish La Liga

MetaData — Season 20/21 here
ShotData — Season 20/21 here

German Bundesliga

MetaData — Season 20/21 here
ShotData — Season 20/21 here

French Ligue 1

MetaData — Season 20/21 here
ShotData — Season 20/21 here

Italian Serie A

MetaData — Season 20/21 here
ShotData — Season 20/21 here

All 5 Leagues combined

MetaData — Season 14/15 → Season19/20 here
ShotData —Season 14/15 → Season19/20 here

Glossary

MetaData

1. player_id → Understat’s unique player ID which helps identify each player
2. player_name → The player’s name
3. games → Number of games player has appeared in that season
4. time → Number of minutes player has played in that season
5. goals → Goals scored in that season
6. xG → Expected goals accumulated in that season
7. assists → Assists provided in that season
8. xA → Expected assists accumulated in that season
9. shots → shots taken in that season
10. key_passes → key passes made in that season
11. yellow_cards → yellow cards received in that season
12. red_cards → red cards received in that season
13. position → Position played throughout the season. F → Forward, M→ Midfield, D→ Defender, GK→ Goalkeeper
14. team_name → The team the player played for in that season, if the player switched clubs mid-season, that player will have two entries for that specific season
15. npg → Non Penalty Goals scored in that season
16. npxG → Non Penalty Expected goals accumulated in that season
17. xGChain → Total xG of every possession the player was involved in
18. xGBuildup → Total xG of every possession the player was involved in (without key passes and shots)
19. year → Season in which the preceding data was collected. 2014 is 2014/15 and so on

ShotData

1. h_team → Home Team during that specific match
2. id → MatchID of that specific match
3. minute → Minute at which the shot was taken (remember that one of the downfalls of understat data is that it doesn’t differentiate between shots taken in the extra time after the first half and the restart after the second half)
4. result → Outcome of that shot. Examples →Goal, MissedShots, SavedShot, MissedShots, Goal, BlockedShot
5. X → The understat pitches classifies the pitch as 100 units by 100 units (both length and width). X represents the length. 0 to 100 is from left to right (goal-line to the other goal line)
6. Y → Represents the width. 0 to 100 is from bottom to top
7. xG → Expected Goal value of that specific shot
8. player → Player who took the shot
9. h_a → Whether the shot was taken at home or away
10. player_id → Unique ID of the player who took the shot
11. situation → Situation from which shot was taken. Examples → OpenPlay, SetPiece, DirectFreekick, FromCorner
12. year → Season in which the shot was taken
13. shotType → Which body part the shot was taken with → RightFoot, Head, LeftFoot or Other
14. match_id → Unique ID of the match in which the shot was taken
15. a_team → Away Team during that specific match
16. h_goals → Goals scored by the home team in that specific match
17. a_goals → Goals scored by the away team in that specific match
18. date → Date of the match
19. player_assisted → Player who assisted the shot if any
20. lastAction → The last action before the shot was taken. Examples → Chipped, Cross, Pass, TakeOn, Rebound