In Denmark, they are now even trying to apply the same approach to one area that would seem immune to it: the psychology Of players. So of course, the merging of Data, Football, and a favourite journalist, was something that really appealed to me. The story of data use in football would have benefited from the input of a data practitioner rather than only being told by journalists. Since granular details aren't available success stories are generally illustrated by modest transfer fees for players that turn out to be brilliant, or mention of set piece prowess. 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.

At times it felt like there was a lot of padding in the prose to get to some sort of pre-ordained word limit. The greatest moment of danger for any team is in the moment when they switch from a defensive mode to an offensive one. 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.

Expected Goals charts his remarkable journey into the heart of the modern game and reveals how clubs across the world, from Liverpool to Leipzig and Brentford to Bayern Munich, began to see how data could help them unearth new players, define radical tactics and plot their path to glory. Central to this cast is Chris Anderson, an academic with no experience in football, who saw data as an opportunity to fundamentally change a sport that did not think it could be changed. But as we shared thoughts about yesterday's Champions League tie to break the ice, it was clear he had an incredibly sharp tactical mind. One interviewee used a prior recommendation of a younger De Bruyne to illustrate the value of his data, a discovery less impressive when you realise he had already been bought by Chelsea and was only on loan at Bremen at the time.

It's a story of rogue statisticians and innovative thinkers finding their foot in a world previously guarded by an air of immense exclusivity. This is a human story after all; one embracing the beginning of a revolution that has yet to really soar. Its/meaning resistance is explained by the fact that data comes along and it’s a different way of interpreting football. Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook). The hilarious and heartwarming new memoir from James Acaster: cult comedian, bestselling author, undercover cop, receiver of cabbages.Tippett successfully makes a complex concept easy to understand and uses a broad range of examples to explore the benefits it provides for expanding your understanding of soccer. The story switches from club to club, and I lost track of how many English teams were actually profiled for using data and which individuals did what. This felt very much like a book trying to prove that data has indeed 'conquered football and changed the game forever', yet not really managing to convince with a clearcut case study that proves it beyond doubt.

Having read two books that cover this aspect of his career, I'm still left perplexed as to what he wants to do that would be in any way plausible for someone with little relevant experience. As an employee of the German data analysis company Impect, Flores “tags” games—putting in every action by a player and tabulating this on pre-specified metrics. Klopp had an open mind and had some familiarity with data use from the Bundesliga, but Liverpool took it to a new level.There’s the story of the opportunistic chair salesman in the 1990s who went to a Premier League club to set up chairs in their training ground, came across an assistant manager struggling to cut match footage, realised he could help clubs collect videos and data from games, and set up ProZone, what is today one of the world’s leading performance analysis firms.