When a pass is incomplete, the data normally records only the passer's action and the outcome (incomplete). StatsBomb additionally records a ball receipt event for the intended recipient when that intention can be confidently inferred — from player trajectory, pass angle, and game context. This allows analysts to distinguish between passes that went to the right place but were intercepted vs. passes that were misdirected. Intent data transforms outcome analysis into decision-quality analysis.
Correct use: filter to incomplete passes; join to receipt events where they exist (intended receipts); segment by whether the intent was correct (ball was going to the right space, just intercepted) vs. incorrect (ball was aimed to a pressured or wrong receiver). The presence of an intent receipt record on a failed pass means the analyst can evaluate the decision separately from the execution — a good decision badly executed is different from a bad decision that happened to fail.
When the intended recipient of a failed pass is known (from the ball receipt event on incomplete passes), the pass reveals the player's decision quality even though execution failed. A progressive pass into the correct pocket that was slightly overhit tells you the player SAW the opportunity — execution is more coachable than vision. Filtering to only completed passes for decision analysis discards the most diagnostic data: the ambitious attempts that didn't quite work.