Clik here to view.
What Matters in Football? A Deeper Look at Chances Created
One of the goals of sport analytics is to convey rich information about a player or team in a single number or statistic. In football one of the main areas of interest is how much a player contributes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More Discussion about Possession Adjusted Defensive Stats
This weekend, @7AMKickoff published a piece attacking the concept of adjusting defensive stats for possession. The piece was a bit dickish, but there were elements of it that deserve a reply, so I’ll...
View ArticleClik here to view.
EPL 2014-15 Season Preview – Everton
What’s new? At £4m, Muhamed Besic comes in as a low-budget, high-potential signing to ‘bolster’ midfield and defence. Flying wide-forward Gerard Deulofeu returns to Barcelona to be replaced by...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scouting Report: Is Memphis Depay Another Andros Townsend?
An excellent question, and one that should concern clubs looking at spending between £15 to £20M on PSV’s left wide forward. Today I’ll tuck into both of their stats to find out. First, Andros...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Is Wrong With Daniel Sturridge?
I buy the Times on occasion (not for political reasons, or an endorsement of Rupert Murdoch’s empire: I like some of the puzzles) and this Thursday there was an interesting small analysis piece on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unluc-Kike? A Case Study On Middlesbrough’s Misfiring Forward
With Middlesbrough cruelly confined to another year in the Championship, Patrick Bamford returning to parent club Chelsea and Jelle Vossen’s prospects of returning to the club after the summer shrouded...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who Are The Most Promising Young Attackers In The Big European Leagues?
If I were to give you a list with these players names on it… Felipe Anderson Nabil Fekir Raheem Sterling Hakan Calhanoglu Harry Kane Paul Pogba Romelu Lukaku Paulo Dybala Luciano Vietto …then many of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ten Intriguing Ligue 1 Attackers
Last season, I did a piece on 10 intriguing Ligue 1 players and looking back on it nearly a year later, it’s kind of funny to see what’s happened since. Origi has for the most part reaffirmed my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hatem Ben Arfa: Ligue 1’s Smoke and Mirrors show
His goals have been vine/gif worthy, he’s clawed his way back to the French National Team and he’s been part of a Nice squad that have scored the 2nd most goals in Ligue 1 this season. It’s been a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ousmane Dembele: The Next French Phenomenon?
As the Ligue 1 season winds down, storylines are starting to slowly dwindle down to a core trio: the race for the last Champions League spot is still as tight as when we last covered it (disclaimer:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Design Diary – MK Shot Maps
Note: All football data in this piece is from Opta and the visualizations were built using that information. A long, long time ago – November 2014 to be precise – I was lamenting the state of public...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Search For Confidence And The Hot Foot Theory
For an upcoming IntoPress piece on the ‘confidence’ trope in football, I decided to have a speculative foray into the numbers, drawing inspiration from the ever controversial ‘hot hand’ debate in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Player Aging: Attacking Players
End of my Hiatus First things first. Although I never publicly announced it at the time, I’ve spent the last 12 months consulting for a Premier League football team. My engagement ended at the end...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Who Is Alexandre Lacazette And Should Arsenal Spend £40m On Him?
Since his 27 goal explosion in 2014-15, Alexandre Lacazette has been linked with numerous big clubs over a move from Olympique Lyonnais, with the latest being Arsenal. Similar to Thierry Henry insofar...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Twente’s One Pilot: Hakim Ziyech
In the Dutch media, Hakim Ziyech has come to be known as ‘Hakim the Silent’. Since the start of 2016, he no longer attends press conferences or interviews of any sort; Ziyech and his agent feel they...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scouting Ligue 1: Bordeaux’s Adam Ounas
It’s almost become a mini tradition within Ligue 1: over the past couple of seasons a young attacking player between the age of 18-22 makes a leap towards mainstream stardom with a highly successful...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Memphis Depay: Why it hasn’t worked out at Man United
When Memphis Depay signed for Man United in the summer of 2015, he was one of those rare prospects that while unproven, seem certain to succeed. He’d broken through in the Eredivisie the previous...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Joshua King and the Hot Foot
Joshua King scored sixteen goals in the Premier League last season for Bournemouth. His contributions went a huge way towards securing their 9th placed finish. He has now been linked with a big money...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Quantifying finishing skill
The consensus in the football analytics community appears to be that finishing skill exists, but is only provable given large samples of shots, and hence estimation of this skill for individual players...
View ArticleScouting Leon Bailey
This article was co-authored by @MoeSquare and @EuanDewar. Chances are you’ve heard someone wax lyrical about Leon Bailey this season. The...
View Article