I can't give it full marks because I found it too shallow in its treatment of the metrics being used by the teams to achieve their goals. A beautiful ode to the data revolution sweeping football, Expected Goals is a documentary-like book that details the rise of data companies and their stakes in the modern game, particularly in the English Premier League. This must in some way be attributed to data and comparing things across undervalued markets as well as comparisons with those they have on their books already. The sort of intro that starts "With his Yoshi figurine on the shelf and his handlebar moustache, X Yman didn't strike you as your typical football coach, and only the odd grey at his temples hinted that he was indeed a grown man. Once the data were there then analysts started to use the data to work find players who were likely to be stars and how the game could be better played.

He scored seven goals in Brighton’s first season in the Premier League, helped keep them up and has become an integral member of a Brighton side that currently lie sixth in the league. If you ever want to assess a player’s skill in relation to the average player, then it’s important to use a large enough sample size to omit any variance. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.One is the lack of critical evaluation of Anderson, who isn't asked why he should be in charge of a club and isn't just a committed fantacist. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. Overall a very good quality service from this seller and I would not hesitate to recommend this seller.

Their predilection to keep the ball circulating until the perfect chance arose was not - or at least not solely - because of an innate understanding of probability, but because of a deliberate philosophical choice made by their manager.The structure of the book was similar to The Blind Side in that it followed the individual story of Chris Anderson across the book, while covering the story of analytics in general. I really had high hopes for this book as I wanted to learn more about how data is used in the game, and how it improves performance. Without any proof his methods had worked on a smaller scale, he wanted to be put in charge of a football club purely with a theory that there were inefficiencies in how clubs were run. While the value of data and data analytics is unquestionable, I am doubtful that these tools give someone a big advantage.