Purpose: In professional soccer, most evident increase in skill level throughout the whole range of techniques is in passing (Frank and Hughes. 2016). This research will provide and analyze data, through notational analysis (Carling, Williams & Reilly. 2005: Hughes. 2003: Hughes & Bartlett. 2002: James. 2006), regarding different variables such as passes overall, goals conceded, backward passes and ranking at the end of each season, but will mostly investigate if there is a relevant correlation between backwards passing and season ranking. Therefore, the importance of this research is to clarify if backward passing is relevant to ranking, especially if comparing top and bottom teams in English Premier League. Methods: This research examined data from 3648 English Premier League games played from the 2010-11 to 2017-18 season. Match performance was observed in top six teams and bottom six teams. The aim was to investigate performance trends of the top and bottom teams and to investigate the correlation between ranking and different variables such as passes overall, backward passes and goals conceded. Results: Overall passes number during this period has increased both in the top and bottom teams in a linear trend. When comparing backwards passes, a greater increase has been noticed in top teams rather then bottom teams on sea son-by-season base (2804 ± 256 vs. 2188 ± 52). Furthermore, this could potentially be linked to possession as a success tool. In average 15% of passes overall are backward passes both in the top and bottom teams. Moreover, when comparing only the winners and last teams positioned during this eight-season period, there is a 25% difference between numbers of backward passes, which is shown to increase regularly from season to season. During this eight-year timespan. goals conceded decreased steadily in top teams but stayed mostly unchanged in bottom six teams (39.5 ± 1.9 vs. 65 ± 3.4). Conclusion: This data demonstrates changes and evolving tactics throughout eight seasons timespan in the English Premier League and could be used to assist in pregame tactics preparation. Future research should focus on bringing different European elite leagues datasets in one study, but range their data span only through one season. Another area of study should focus on the patterns of passes, whereas should one look at the location on the pitch when a backward pass is executed and accordingly add tags on different backward passes and their relevance to the whole game and what outcome is produced with them.
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