Inspiration
Football analysis is often split between watching matches, spreadsheets, and technical data tools. TakTik was inspired by the idea that analysts, coaches, scouts, and serious fans should be able to explore match data in football language and quickly turn it into practical tactical evidence.
What it does
TakTik turns event data into an interactive match-analysis workspace. Users can explore passing maps, progressive actions, high-pressure sequences, ball recoveries, player involvement, match timelines, tactical filters, pitch annotations, player comparisons, saved insights, exports, and scouting watchlists.
How we built it
We built TakTik with a FastAPI backend, Neo4j graph database, and a responsive JavaScript frontend. StatsBomb event data is ingested into Neo4j as players, events, pitch zones, passes, and recoveries. The interface queries this data dynamically and presents it through football-focused visualisations and plain-language prompts.
The platform includes self-managed authentication, match importing, saved queries, comments, share links, analyst filters, CSV and JSON export, and print-ready tactical reports.
Challenges we ran into
One challenge was moving beyond demo data and making every part of the interface respond to imported Neo4j match data. We also had to make the graph interactive while avoiding graph-database jargon for football users.
Other challenges included handling Python environment setup, Neo4j configuration, match metadata, duplicate imports, authentication, data validation, and ensuring filters such as player, zone, match minute, possession phase, and score state affected the analysis correctly.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Built a working football-analysis platform backed by real imported match data
- Created interactive passing maps with zooming, panning, player selection, and tactical filters
- Added pitch annotations, timelines, player comparison, watchlists, reports, and exports
- Replaced persistent demo content with dynamic Neo4j-driven match information
- Designed a football-first landing page and interface for analysts, coaches, scouts, and enthusiasts
- Made technical graph details optional rather than central to the user experience
What we learned
We learned that useful sports analytics is not only about storing data correctly. It is also about presenting it in a way that helps users answer real football questions.
We learned how to model football events in Neo4j, build a self-managed authentication flow, process StatsBomb data, create data-driven frontend visualisations, and translate technical concepts into language that fits an analyst’s workflow.
What's next for TakTik
Next, we want to expand TakTik into a complete analysis workspace with:
- Cross-match and season-long player comparisons
- Better tactical-report templates and PDF exports
- Richer match catalogue metadata, line-ups, badges, and competition views
- Background import progress and validation
- Collaborative workspaces, comments, mentions, and presentation links
- Scouting tools such as comparable-player search and trend tracking
- Model-assisted follow-up questions with validated, read-only data access
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