Jason’s interview

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

It is academic because they are just statistics from a football match. They don't show the shots on target wouldn't get past me if I was in goal. The possession is completely irrelevant because it had very little end product. So many of the teams we have played have also been so poor we may have had slightly better stats, but still lost.

The only good team we have played for weeks is Barrow whose stats were infinitely better than ours but they lost! And you think we should take any notice of them?!

I'm sure the new chap will follow current orthodoxy but it won't do him a bit of good.

It doesn't matter what I think, or what you think. All clubs use stats whether you refuse to accept their relevance or not.

Quoted from ginnywings

Maybe so, although I would say we have played decent in patches without much rub of the green, but why bring up how rubbish we have been when they have just sacked the manager and his assistant? Fairly self evident.

Not the time to start telling all and sundry that we have been sh1t is it? They ultimately carried the can, so no point rubbing it in.

What is the data though ?

Can it tell you the ball hit the post and rolled along the line today ?
Or that Amos could have squared the ball the other night for 1 of 5 players ?
Or that Eastwood looked frozen when coming for an easy catch ?

I'm very confused about this data & Stockwood Al talk

Quoted from ginnywings

It doesn't matter what I think, or what you think. All clubs use stats whether you refuse to accept their relevance or not.

Obviously I know and agree with that, but I am arguing they are pointless. Too many moving parts, too many different scenarios, too many variables involving the manager, the standard of player, the opposition, luck or bad luck, confidence or lack of, who is analysing the data and whether they come to the right conclusion (do you think most analysts would come up with different conclusions from the same data, as they surely would?).

It's a modern phenomenon for sure, but just like Hurst couldn't get a tune out of this set of data (players) another manager will do due to a different playing philosophy, so just how sophisticated would the data analysis be to match players with a suitable manager?.

I will always be in a minority of one, but I think it is utterly ridiculous that stats tell you it's not too bad when we can't win a game in a near silent BP with terrible performances and when we did win all the data was in Barrows favour.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

It is academic because they are just statistics from a football match. They don't show the shots on target wouldn't get past me if I was in goal.

Mate, that's called xG. FFS, just because you don't understand something, it's unsurprisingly not worthless to those who do. Data's clearly just a tool, not an oracle. Stockwood explained that in the interview

Quoted from immariner

Mate, that's called xG. FFS, just because you don't understand something, it's unsurprisingly not worthless to those who do. Data's clearly just a tool, not an oracle. Stockwood explained that in the interview

Thats not it though, is it? It doesn't take into account who the goalie is, or his abilities. Every game is different due to the standard of the opposition.

Are we going to have to put up with you making this point every single match under the next manager too? It’s not going to change.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I will always be in a minority of one, but I think it is utterly ridiculous that stats tell you it's not too bad when we can't win a game in a near silent BP with terrible performances and when we did win all the data was in Barrows favour.

I know we play in black and white but you do realise there is a massive area of grey that sits in between don’t you?

Nobody on this forum or at the club thinks that stats and data are the sole driver for success. Like Yoda, they are merely a tool.

We all sit in the big grey band. For some reason, you seem to want to lurch to the extreme on this despite no-one, absolutely no-one, being positioned on the opposite extreme.

I know NLN clubs (not that one!) who analyse in-match sprint data to highlight potential fitness or underperformance issues. It is one part of modern football.

I agree with you that football is beautifully random but stats and data can, and I emphasise ‘can’, improve chances of success.

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

Thats not it though, is it? It doesn't take into account who the goalie is, or his abilities. Every game is different due to the standard of the opposition.

....yeah, and that's exactly why data/stats are only used as a tool to help the assessment of a situation. I don't think anyone out there is claiming to be just using a data-led approach and not using personal opinion or scouting by the human eye.

Especially Hurst himself, who said repeatedly that his own pair of eyes could tell him more about a player than a collection of stats, but that there was still a place for stats in the initial stages of identifying targets to go out and scout.

If data is going to drive every decision maybe we should get some better data.

Quoted from ska face

Are we going to have to put up with you making this point every single match under the next manager too? It’s not going to change.

I don't see why not, we've put up with your bile for years with (mainly) good grace. As you might say if you don't like it don't read it.