Marseille’s decision to hire Jorge Sampaoli was a bold one. It’s only the second time that the Argentine tactician has taken a job in Europe and the first, a single season with Sevilla, wasn’t deemed a success. They finished fourth in LaLiga and were knocked out of the Champions League by Leicester City. The Andalusian…
Resistance to change is normal. There’s often a fear of the unknown and moving away from what you’re used to is something very few are comfortable with. This is perhaps why there’s a refusal from some to accept a number of modern-day metrics used for analysis. Over the last decade, football data has become more…
Since retiring from football in 2013, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has made a name for himself as one of the leading analysts on TV as part of the Sky Sports team. The 38-cap England international is the poster boy for statistics and analysis within media, having trialled VR and adopted expected goals into his vocabulary.…
“A draw is a disaster. A draw is a defeat in many ways. It’s not acceptable to draw a football match.” Steven Gerrard’s interview on Robbie Fowler’s podcast is 45 minutes long, but those three seconds were arguably the best insight into his mindset as a manager. It also goes some way to explaining why,…
Part of the beauty of football is its capacity to surprise. Every season throws up unexpected storylines—both good and bad—that shock those even with the tightest grip and fullest extent of knowledge on certain situations. Those surprises come in many forms, from clubs to managers to players to almost anything else. Here, we have picked…
With the likes of Sky Sports, The Athletic and Squawka all embracing data, different terms are becoming a lot more common within this industry. One such phrase is scalable output. This is key when it comes to judging whether or not a player has the potential to improve. It can also play a part in…
Pass maps can be wonderful and weird. They can tell a story, help shape a narrative and confirm a theory. They can also be too busy and this, occasionally, means context is missed. Without that, they can be confused with a piece of abstract art. Pass maps are one of the few visualisations in the…
During his final season with Lille, Nicolas Pépé averaged 0.33 non-penalty goals per 90. For Arsenal this term, that figure stands at 0.34. He’s only just ticked over the 1,000-minute mark in the Premier League, so the volume isn’t yet there, but there are signs to suggest Mikel Arteta has figured out how to get…
This will be an article that tells you what expected goals (xG) is, what it isn’t, and solves all the debates about it once and for all. Or, at least, I expect it to. At its simplest, the statistic is a measure of chance quality. Shots are given an xG value based on a number…
Attacking midfielders are back in fashion. Teams are moving away from 4-3-3 shapes and reverting back to 4-2-3-1. On paper, there’s not a huge dissimilarity between the systems, but the roles in midfield are drastically different. Throughout the course of the 2020/21 Premier League campaign, many of the top teams have made the switch and…