Paul Lambert confirmed as new manager (reply #544)

[Monty]

Absolutely Ozz. Teams with decent-to-good players who are overly mechanised - like Hodgson's or Eriksson's down the years - have been found out just as easily as teams with little or no plan other than hoping their better players play well. You need both.

[evalast1910]

I remember reading this when I was in New York City last year in the FT, it makes a very good point about stats in baseball to football etc, if you get chance give it a read....One of the best articles I have ever read, glad I have found it again.

[Monty]

I remember reading this when I was in New York City last year in the FT, it makes a very good point about stats in baseball to football etc, if you get chance give it a read....One of the best articles I have ever read, glad I have found it again.

That's a brilliant article. I particularly love the stat about Maldini making about one tackle every two games. That tells you all you need to know.

[Edvard Remberg]

I remember reading this when I was in New York City last year in the FT, it makes a very good point about stats in baseball to football etc, if you get chance give it a read....One of the best articles I have ever read, glad I have found it again.

That's a brilliant article. I particularly love the stat about Maldini making about one tackle every two games. That tells you all you need to know.

Either we just looked at stats or not at all, when signing Heskey

[Olneythelonely]

I like it when they kick the ball in the net.

[old man villa fan]

I remember reading this when I was in New York City last year in the FT, it makes a very good point about stats in baseball to football etc, if you get chance give it a read....One of the best articles I have ever read, glad I have found it again.

That's a brilliant article. I particularly love the stat about Maldini making about one tackle every two games. That tells you all you need to know.

Either we just looked at stats or not at all, when signing Heskey

That was the time when Lennie Peters was scouting for us. 

[Singapore Villa]

I remember reading this when I was in New York City last year in the FT, it makes a very good point about stats in baseball to football etc, if you get chance give it a read....One of the best articles I have ever read, glad I have found it again.

Thanks for posting that.  What a fascinating article - whilst I knew there was some statistical analysis done by clubs on their players, I never thought it would be that advanced.  Cheers

[damon loves JT]

At Liverpool, Comolli has genuine power. He has said that data informed the club’s recent purchases of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez for a combined £60m.

Okay......

[mr-villa]

Indeed a fascinating article yet one that points out very clearly that Arsenal football club has been controlled by a "quant" for the past fifteen years and yet they have just completed a seventh trophyless season!!  That's the real stat.

[Monty]

Indeed a fascinating article yet one that points out very clearly that Arsenal football club has been controlled by a "quant" for the past fifteen years and yet they have just completed a seventh trophyless season!!  That's the real stat.

But in that time have won many trophies including going a whole season unbeaten, and during which time they've not finished outside the top 4. Also, during which time Wenger has proven himself the best in the business at selling players at the right time, using just these statistical methods. I don't know about you, but I'd take that for Villa.

[damon loves JT]

Indeed a fascinating article yet one that points out very clearly that Arsenal football club has been controlled by a "quant" for the past fifteen years and yet they have just completed a seventh trophyless season!!  That's the real stat.

But in that time have won many trophies including going a whole season unbeaten, and during which time they've not finished outside the top 4. Also, during which time Wenger has proven himself the best in the business at selling players at the right time, using just these statistical methods. I don't know about you, but I'd take that for Villa.

Arsenal fans moan like hell about it though.

[TheSandman]

At Liverpool, Comolli has genuine power. He has said that data informed the club’s recent purchases of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez for a combined £60m.

Okay......

If I remember well, it was claimed that they signed Carroll because he won the highesr number of balls in the air in the league and they signed Downing and Enrique because they put in the highest number of crosses. Not sure how true it was.

[damon loves JT]

At Liverpool, Comolli has genuine power. He has said that data informed the club’s recent purchases of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez for a combined £60m.

Okay......

If I remember well, it was claimed that they signed Carroll because he won the highesr number of balls in the air in the league and they signed Downing and Enrique because they put in the highest number of crosses. Not sure how true it was.

and now Comolli has had the sack and Downing is an unexampled figure of hate for the Kop.

[OCD]

Very interesting article. Reading it I couldn't help but recall about how Randy Lerner had met Damien Comoli a few times before we went down the path of recruiting a manager. At the time, the speculation was about whether Comoli would become a Director of Football. Given how the article discusses the growing influence of stats in the sport, it seems more likely now that he had discussions about these stats, which he considered to be key metrics and which managers he felt were best at using stats.

Lambert clearly uses stats to influence the way he sets up a team, hence why he used several formations at different times last season. I don't think its a stretch to imagine that Karsa is his main stats/numbers guy or that this way of thinking clearly influenced the decision path the club took.

[OCD]

At Liverpool, Comolli has genuine power. He has said that data informed the club’s recent purchases of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez for a combined £60m.

Okay......

If I remember well, it was claimed that they signed Carroll because he won the highesr number of balls in the air in the league and they signed Downing and Enrique because they put in the highest number of crosses. Not sure how true it was.

When we played them Carroll was on the bench until around the 70 minute mark. In the same substitution that brought Carroll onto the pitch, Downing came off. I don't think Kenny Dalglish was the right manager for this approach somehow.

Stats won't tell you how much of a piss-head Carroll is or how much a little racist prick Suarez is. As someone said in the article, stats can point you in the right general direction but you still have to do your homework into other areas like personality, how likely the player would fit the club's culture etc.