The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that Opta have updated their definition of a ball recovery – a key component of defensive contributions in Fantasy.
The new version reads:
The old version:
What do the changes mean?
The old version caused some confusion among Fantasy managers. When watching a match, there were occasions when managers were expecting a ball recovery to be awarded and one wasn’t forthcoming.
In particular, the line “where the ball has been played directly to him by an opponent” led many to assume, quite understandably, that a player collecting a defensive clearance would earn a ball recovery.
Except, that’s not always the case. Opta’s new wording aims to clarify why.
The key to the new wording is “full control must be established” for possession to change from one team to the other.
Sticking with our example, while the player collecting the clearance may have controlled the ball and played a pass, thereby establishing full control, in order for a ball recovery to be awarded, the opponent must have been in possession beforehand. It might be better to think of a “ball recovery” as a “possession recovery”.
In essence, it is a team marker to denote the start and end of possession sequences. And for a team to gain possession, they must have established full control.
So, when a team plays a cross into the opposition penalty area and that cross is cleared by a defender straight back to the attacking team, there’s been no change of possession. The defending team did not gain full control therefore the player picking up the clearance is not awarded a ball recovery.
What are the implications for Fantasy?
Nothing! The rewording from Opta is purely to provide a better understanding of how they collect ball recoveries.
In that sense, the change has been made to help Fantasy managers, especially those of us who like to count our defensive contributions, so that we can know, when watching a match, what counts as a ball recovery and what doesn’t.
