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This is a strawman. I challenge anyone on this forum to provide evidence that there exists someone who truly believes that statistics are the "be all and end all of everything".
As the cliché goes, "that's why they play the games."
AVB, his obsession with interminable passing between defenders and his constant bleating about our possession percentages.
Interestingly, AVB also is quite vocal of his dislike of Prozone and analytics in general. Probably because that stuff generally views his ideas as really bad.
So if we had had 40% possession and taken all three points, AVB's press conference would have been all about his fretting about how we had lost the possession game?
If no, then clearly these ancillary stats were not the "end all and be all of everything".
Nice thread.
A comment in the first post really resonated with me, about how a profession can be ruined by stats obssessed outsiders who do not understand the job at hand. That has happened in my own career experience and I've seen how hard it is to counteract the damage done by misleading stats being promoted to workers and analysts
A comment in the first post really resonated with me, about how a profession can be ruined by stats obssessed outsiders who do not understand the job at hand. That has happened in my own career experience and I've seen how hard it is to counteract the damage done by misleading stats being promoted to workers and analysts
It's turned UK postsecondary education into a kafkaesque mockery of its former self, for example.
My comment about "common sense" was not directed at the stat which I did not know what it meant. It was a more general comment about people who try to use stats to justify every single one of their arguments. An example which always amuses me (stolen from a comedian, sorry, can't remember which one)
If 1 in 5 road accidents are caused by drunk drivers this means drink driving is bad, doesn't it? But on the other hand 4 in 5 accidents are caused by sober drivers. Therefore sober drivers cause 4 times as many accidents as drunk drivers.
Now, I know there are many other factors that go in to this, like the proportion of drunk drivers who cause accidents compared to the proportion of sober drivers etc. I'm not saying stats are all bad, but what I am saying is that you need to interpret them properly.
Yes, but that doesn't really deal with the merits of the particular statistic itself, or the merits of whatever point is being made in relation to it.
Concerning Payet (and Cabaye) I think the stat that meant the most to our people was their ages.
Maybe. Payet is 27 or 28? Stats winning though as he's got another one tonight.
Pochettino seems to be really personally averse to older players. He's always played young squads except for his last season at Espanyol, so after having things go to shit, he may feel that older players won't be able to do what he wants a team to do.
Also, the club is almost always focused on resale value, and buying peak year players tends to make that harder to get.
Payet is 28. Cabaye 29. Unless it's a goalie we don't do those signings atm.
I really enjoy when folks like
Juicy Sushi
back up their assessment with statistical support. It is an attempt to be more objective, and it just adds a different dynamic to a football discussion than I could offer.
However (and this may just be my ignorance of football stats), it seems to me that it would be tougher to develop statistics to explain what is happening on a football pitch compared to other sports. Baseball is probably the sport that really kicked off the stats revolution. However in baseball, there is one pitcher and one batter at a time. Football is much less isolated and therefore would seem to be much more difficult to limit variables. For that reason I have the feeling that the team stats in football are more valuable than individual stats.
But like I said I really appreciate what the stats folks are trying to do.
Juicy Sushi
back up their assessment with statistical support. It is an attempt to be more objective, and it just adds a different dynamic to a football discussion than I could offer. However (and this may just be my ignorance of football stats), it seems to me that it would be tougher to develop statistics to explain what is happening on a football pitch compared to other sports. Baseball is probably the sport that really kicked off the stats revolution. However in baseball, there is one pitcher and one batter at a time. Football is much less isolated and therefore would seem to be much more difficult to limit variables. For that reason I have the feeling that the team stats in football are more valuable than individual stats.
But like I said I really appreciate what the stats folks are trying to do.
If you beat up statistics they will tell you anything?
Not going to get too deep into the value of statistics but the key to them is balancing statistics with scouting and observation. Statistics are meant to augment watching and scouting players, not replace it.
In regards to statistics slowing down football, I don't buy it. The problem right now is that defensive tactics are ahead of offensive tactics. It's clear that being organized in banks of four and trying to counter attack has become the most used football tactic by both good and bad teams. Everyone's doing it and it's made football less enjoyable to watch on a whole. Managers all across Europe seem to be looking for the answer to these more defensive tactics and until this happens we'll generally see slower and more deliberate football.
In regards to statistics slowing down football, I don't buy it. The problem right now is that defensive tactics are ahead of offensive tactics. It's clear that being organized in banks of four and trying to counter attack has become the most used football tactic by both good and bad teams. Everyone's doing it and it's made football less enjoyable to watch on a whole. Managers all across Europe seem to be looking for the answer to these more defensive tactics and until this happens we'll generally see slower and more deliberate football.
One final note I left out of my earlier response:
Rafa Benítez, one of the most statistically astute managers out there, in an interview with So Foot explained, if I recall correctly, that he was sick of broadcasts displaying statistics like kilometres run and so on. No one statistic will explain a performance. Well, one will, he added: total wage bill.
Rafa Benítez, one of the most statistically astute managers out there, in an interview with So Foot explained, if I recall correctly, that he was sick of broadcasts displaying statistics like kilometres run and so on. No one statistic will explain a performance. Well, one will, he added: total wage bill.
I think it's unfortunate we have stopped signing players around that age. Some of our best in recent memory have been on the shorter side of 30. VDV, Kranjcar, Parker, Dempsey. I get that the club wants to retain some sell on value but let's be real most players are only at the club for 2-3 years now. So what difference if it is from 22-25 than 27-30?
The young ones can be re-sold for decent and sometimes stunning amounts of money. The older ones cannot.