Preliminary Study on Strength Identification Measurement for World Cup Soccer Players in Whoscored . com using Rasch Measurement Model

Malaysia soccer team is facing a declining trend of performance in recent years. There are a lot of corrective actions that have been taken by the related authorities, but to no avail. One of the actions that had been taken is related to improving the player’s strength. However, the significant strength attributes that could be the winning factor in a game is yet to be determined. Hence, the study aims to identify the sequences of strength attributes for 2018 World Cup soccer players using a probabilistic model known as Rasch Measurement Model (RMM); which can act as a guidance for the Malaysia football team to improve the player’s performances. Nineteen (19) strength attributes were obtained from Whoscored.com and converted into a 4-Likert rating data. A total of fifty (50) players participated in the 2018 FIFA World Cup were taken as population sample. The result from the Person-Item Distribution Map (PIDM) shows that, in order for the Malaysia soccer team to improve, they should start with the skill to intercept the ball (2.70 logit), dribble (-2.33 logit) and taking set-pieces (-2.03 logit). On the other hand, the result from Summary Statistics proves that the strength attributes used by Whoscored.com is sufficient to gauge the players’ strength since it yields a reliability value of 0.90, and Cronbach Alpha value of 0.96.