Expected Goals: The story of how data conquered football and changed the game forever

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It comes to the conclusion that we're still some way away from the full impact data can have on the game, which I suspect will be proven correct. They might, as Ankersen said, be in terms of nutrition, or injury prevention anc recovery, or even in sleep, disciplines in which footballs interest t still young. I really enjoyed how each chapter had its own story while the thread of the story of Chris Andersen ran through the whole book.

Smith’s work as a soccer correspondent for NYT has always been infused by a perspective that goes beyond the field, situating the sport in a wider cultural context. Expected Goals : The Story of How Data Conquered Football and Changed the Game Forever (2022) by Rory Smith is another book that looks at the rise of data and analytics in football. All the stories follow a familiar path of some person usually in a stable white collar job but with a gut instinct that data should be somehow useful in football and with little to no knowledge of how football operates they set about accomplishing their goal including quitting their stable jobs.

Perhaps that is because the author was not able to get access to a Brentford or a Brighton, who hold their cards very close to their chest - but without the example of a club using data extensively (difficult to use Liverpool due to the influence of Klopp in my view), I am not sure the book's title quite fits the narrative.Clearly the author is deeply knowledgeable about this period of football development and has studied a few key examples closely. This is just simple basic stuff that even the most junior of managers is aware of in business (or should be) and yet in football it has taken decades to even acknowledge data may help. Thank goodness for minnows such as FC Mittyland, Brighton and Brentford to finally prove that in using data effectively, they can democratise the game and compete with the 'best'. Also, I don’t think I’m any more clued up about the specifics of the data that “conquered” the game than I was before reading this book. The formula used to calculate expected goals and other related stats are explained in a straightforward manner by Tippett and are accompanied by easy to follow examples and graphics.

Having been published in September 2022, there is time to give full credence to the success of Brighton and Brentford, who are mentioned mostly in passing within the story of Data coming to football. It gave them eight seconds to win the ball off their opponents, and ten seconds after that to have a shot on goal. Instead, we're left with a flabby narrative that could have been compressed into about a third of its length. Alongside this fact is that baseball had records going back many years before Beane and his merry band of analysts hit upon the OBP (On Base Percentage) importance. By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file.Football management was dominated by ex-players who didn’t have the skills for data analysis and who tended to distrust ideas coming from people who had not played football at a high level. Smith makes the point that in the 1990s food and fitness had been the focus of much improvement in football. He is a long-time contributor to FourFourTwo and has authored seven books, including the best-selling Highbury: The Story of Arsenal in N5, and Get It On: How The '70s Rocked Football was published in March 2022.