Bringing this from comments in the Sunderland match thread so as not to divert that too far off topic.
I quoted a post which showed this tweet:
I wasn't having a go at the poster at all, but not only did I have no idea what it was meant to show but it seemed an example of something which is bugging me - and which I would like to hear others' views on.
My former career was in a public service which became horribly destabilised once academics and theorists who were not practitioners got hold of it and started to introduce targets based on certain statistics. Because the targets set were not always in tune with what needed to be accomplished in dynamic situations, yet the staff were very conscious of criticism if they stayed away from the targets. So they didn't do what the situation actually required and efficiency fell.
That is what I think is happening in football. The abundance of statistics and analysis now available - provided by academics, not footballers - has persuaded modern managers that things like possession, completed passes, take-ons and similar are what really matters. I have no doubt that Monday mornings are filled with one-on-one meetings with analysts who go through performances minutely and look at the numbers. Which creates an atmosphere of fear in the player, who will naturally want the feedback to be positive and ultimately to protect his position in the team by having good scores.
So when the choice, in a game, is to make a telling but difficult pass or to kick it back or square safely he avoids risking a negative number and takes the safe option. It makes Monday's meeting better but slows down the game and does nothing to progress the attack. Moreover, the player who has made the run which the risky pass might have found realises it is not going to happen and so thinks twice before making the run next time. Which makes telling balls even more unlikely in future as there is nobody to pass it to, there is a vicious circle which results in the dull, slow, sideways and back stuff we have got all too used to recently.
We all moan constantly about our lack of creativity, could it be that the geeks are driving it out of the game?
PS - I appreciate the usefulness of statistics in trying to predict outcomes, as in odds-setting, but my point is that they are much less reliable as a tool to try to inhibit or initiate behaviour such as the actual mode of play in fast-moving and unpredictable football matches.
I quoted a post which showed this tweet:
I wasn't having a go at the poster at all, but not only did I have no idea what it was meant to show but it seemed an example of something which is bugging me - and which I would like to hear others' views on.
My former career was in a public service which became horribly destabilised once academics and theorists who were not practitioners got hold of it and started to introduce targets based on certain statistics. Because the targets set were not always in tune with what needed to be accomplished in dynamic situations, yet the staff were very conscious of criticism if they stayed away from the targets. So they didn't do what the situation actually required and efficiency fell.
That is what I think is happening in football. The abundance of statistics and analysis now available - provided by academics, not footballers - has persuaded modern managers that things like possession, completed passes, take-ons and similar are what really matters. I have no doubt that Monday mornings are filled with one-on-one meetings with analysts who go through performances minutely and look at the numbers. Which creates an atmosphere of fear in the player, who will naturally want the feedback to be positive and ultimately to protect his position in the team by having good scores.
So when the choice, in a game, is to make a telling but difficult pass or to kick it back or square safely he avoids risking a negative number and takes the safe option. It makes Monday's meeting better but slows down the game and does nothing to progress the attack. Moreover, the player who has made the run which the risky pass might have found realises it is not going to happen and so thinks twice before making the run next time. Which makes telling balls even more unlikely in future as there is nobody to pass it to, there is a vicious circle which results in the dull, slow, sideways and back stuff we have got all too used to recently.
We all moan constantly about our lack of creativity, could it be that the geeks are driving it out of the game?
PS - I appreciate the usefulness of statistics in trying to predict outcomes, as in odds-setting, but my point is that they are much less reliable as a tool to try to inhibit or initiate behaviour such as the actual mode of play in fast-moving and unpredictable football matches.