Analyzing the Attributes of a Center Defensive Midfielder in Football using Multivariate Analysis

The relevance of center defensive midfielders (CDM) in football cannot be overemphasized. During football games, they are the interlocutor between defense and attack and can be tasked with huge responsibilities. Given the high cost of acquiring an efficient and readily available CDM, we designed this study to use multivariate analysis techniques to determine the correlation between attributes (variables) of a center defensive midfielder such as crossing, short passing, volleys, dribbling, long passing, ball control, and others. With the nonexistence of a multivariate analysis of CDM attributes, we have used canonical correlation analysis (CCA) to investigate these correlations. The study produced four statistically significant (p < 0.05) canonical functions (CF), that showed that attributes such as dribbling, sprint speed, agility, and stamina should be considered more when football clubs are considering a central defensive midfielder. Principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted to discover the most important variables for a CDM. The PCA generated three components. The first component was optimal and highlighted short passing, composure, ball control, interceptions, long passing, vision, and dribbling as the most relevant attributes of a CDM.