Town's top performers by FOTMOB categories

P.S. Thanks for engaging with me, even though you'll probably not be able to persuade me to think any differently in this regard.

Quoted from MarinerMal

Nope, you just don't understand it.

Pretty much the whole of professional football disagrees with you.

I don't care if the whole universe agrees with it I think its a load of old cobblers.

Far too many nuances in the game to have any meaningful stats as is being discussed above.

Xg indeed - look at what you could have won as they used to say on Bullseye.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I don't care if the whole universe agrees with it I think its a load of old cobblers.

Far too many nuances in the game to have any meaningful stats as is being discussed above.

Xg indeed - look at what you could have won as they used to say on Bullseye.

I think we can conclude from your posts that you are happy to be a luddite in this regard.

My take on it is that if the management think it is important enough to take notice of, then who are we to pour cold water on the whole area of statistical analysis? It's their job to make us as good as they can with the resources at our disposal.

To not take stats seriously is to be an outlier as a football club, because everyone else takes notice of these stats, so there has to be something in it, even if it is just to be on a level playing field with everyone else.

Lots of little gains make up a larger gain I would have thought.

Nobody is suggesting that data without analysis or context or understanding means anything or could be used as a basis for decision making. You'd have to be a simpleton to take data from one or two games and make a decision on a player and their strengths and weaknesses but nobody is actually suggesting that are they? Strikes me as a straw man argument for those who have just made up their mind and have no interest in listening or trying to understand it more. Go and tell the recruitment teams at Brighton and Brentford that data in football is a load of balderdash.

Lawrie Shankly didn't need stats vests to tell him who was underperforming when the lads ran up the terraces or on the beach.

Quoted from ginnywings

I think we can conclude from your posts that you are happy to be a luddite in this regard.

My take on it is that if the management think it is important enough to take notice of, then who are we to pour cold water on the whole area of statistical analysis? It's their job to make us as good as they can with the resources at our disposal.

To not take stats seriously is to be an outlier as a football club, because everyone else takes notice of these stats, so there has to be something in it, even if it is just to be on a level playing field with everyone else.

Lots of little gains make up a larger gain I would have thought.

Little 'ol me having an opinion on it obviously has no affect on the club or how seriously they take it and if they feel it helps then fair enough and I also appreciate they have to go with the flow so to speak.

I wonder how many times PH has looked at a player recommend by his stats and thought after 10 mins, nah not for me? Conversely he could see something in a player with terrible stats as my opinion without context stats are near enough useless. No doubt clubs will try to get as much context as possible but even then it is a minefield.

My main gripe is with some fans who seem determined to look at the team through the prism of stats, who want to think being in the top 3 of this or the other stat is important. It's just someone's interpretation of various on field events each of which has fast moving scenarios attached to them, much as Maringer alluded to above.

My first brush with how people misinterpret things was in junior football when tall physically robust players were scoring for fun and their dad and sometimes even their manager thought they would go on to play for England, but in reality it was obvious they couldn't trap a bag of the proverbial cement. Their stats were fantastic but if it lacks context it means nothing.

Admittedly things are totally different at pro level but it is so easy to take things on face value and make wrong adjustments. I bet most managers trust their instincts more than stats any day of the week.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Admittedly things are totally different at pro level but it is so easy to take things on face value and make wrong adjustments. I bet most managers trust their instincts more than stats any day of the week.

This is exactly why you'd use data though. So you don't take things at face value. If your instinct is someone looks like the player you need why would you not check your instincts with available data. Or use data to find options for a specific quality you need and then see what your instincts are about those options. I don't think Brighton will be signing the tall 11 year old from your local youth side because he scored 7 goals last Sunday by the way.

Oh well done Tobias !! Excellent play old boy …

It is quite clear that stats are not the answer to everything, but any team that does not use this analysis is putting themselves at a clear disadvantage. The incremental small gains approach is well proven and as they say if you don’t measure it it doesn’t get done. Many things can be done by gut feel but supplementing this with data for me has to be a great thing. That said I work with numbers all day time iand so my opinion is biased
Utm

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

This is exactly why you'd use data though. So you don't take things at face value. If your instinct is someone looks like the player you need why would you not check your instincts with available data. Or use data to find options for a specific quality you need and then see what your instincts are about those options. I don't think Brighton will be signing the tall 11 year old from your local youth side because he scored 7 goals last Sunday by the way.

There’s a very good article in the Times today about Tony Bloom that really sums up the importance of how they use data to help recruit players and perhaps more importantly managers. He doesn’t claim it’s foolproof or solely rely on it but without it Brighton would not have reached the level they have over the last few seasons.