Passing Networks with xG Contribution Overlay

A passing network shows the volume and direction of passes between players, but standard networks don't capture value. By coloring each passing connection (or node) based on the xG generated from possessions that passed through that connection, you can identify which passing links actually led to dangerous attacks — not just which players passed to each other most frequently. High-volume connections that generate no xG are structurally busy but tactically sterile.

Construction: for each pass event, tag the possession sequence it belongs to; compute the xG of the possession's final shot (or 0 if no shot); assign that xG back to every pass event in that possession chain. Aggregate by passer-receiver pair to get "xG contributed per passing connection." Overlay on the network as color intensity or edge thickness. Nodes (players) can also be sized or colored by their total xG-contribution across all possessions they participated in.

1. Using shot count instead of xG to color connections: Shot count rewards volume; xG rewards quality. A team that takes 15 low-quality shots looks different from one that takes 5 high-quality shots.
2. Assigning xG only to the final pass in a sequence: Every player in the possession chain contributed — distribute xG credit across the chain.