Marek Kwiatkowski
- Towards a New Kind of Analytics
We speak of "tackles" and "aerial duels" and "big chances" without pausing to consider whether they are the appropriate unit of analysis. I believe that they are not. That is not to say that the events are not real; but they are merely side effects of a complex and fluid process that is football, and in isolation carry little information about its true nature. To focus on them then is to watch the train passing by looking at the sparks it sets off on the rails.
Marek Kwiatkowski
- Towards a New Kind of Analytics
Established scientific disciplines rely on abstract concepts to organise their discoveries and provide a language in which conjectures can be stated, arguments conducted and findings related to each other. We lack this kind of language for football analytics. We are doing biology without evolution; physics without calculus; linguistics without grammar. As a result, instead of building a coherent and ever-expanding body of knowledge, we collect isolated factoids.
Ted Knutson
- Changing How the World Thinks about Set Pieces
I don't think I am overstating it when I say set piece execution is one of the most misunderstood, undervalued, and under-exploited edges in the game of football. A single goal in the Premier League right now is worth approximately 2.5M; the ability to conjure these extra goals out of nothing but time and hard work has enormous value, but almost no teams in world football are executing set pieces at a consistently high level.
Matt Demers
- Problems With Personality-Based Content
Personality-based content seems almost too good to be true: the idea is that your users will love the people producing the content so much that what you make is largely irrelevant. By building a rabid fanbase, you're allowed more freedom and less pressure, since people are coming for you.
