Data Within Football

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Data analytics had a massive place in football however high XG goes out the window if the team or player in question couldn't hit a barn door :emoticon-0102-bigsm
 
These are both from @Louorns on twitter, he posts a lot of interesting data and a lot of it is on shot placement/finishing.

First graph looks at how many open play shots Championship strikers take and how many of them are aimed into the corner of the goal. Top right is best here and Isidor is right there.
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Second graph looks purely at shot placement, looking at the percentage of shots aimed in the corner vs the percentage of shots aimed centrally. This time bottom right is best and again Isidor is right there.
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The service into Isidor recently has been very poor, get him the ball in the box and he will score plenty. Would like more from him in terms of holding the ball up and linking play but you can't argue with his finishing ability.
 
Which is it then. On one thread posting about data ruins people's enjoyment of football, on another its a good idea? Make your mind up.

It's both, I have made my mind up.

No need to get touchy about it, I thought I'd explained my thoughts without being personal.

I'm just as entitled to an opinion as anyone else and I respect their right to one ...

... you're the one saying people have got it all wrong.
 
It's both, I have made my mind up.

No need to get touchy about it, I thought I'd explained my thoughts without being personal.

I'm just as entitled to an opinion as anyone else and I respect their right to one ...

... you're the one saying people have got it all wrong.
You did get personal.

People have got it wrong, they are complaining about a metric while misusing it and when doing so demeaning other peoples interests and lines of work. Am I meant to just stay quiet?
 
You did get personal.

People have got it wrong, they are complaining about a metric while misusing it and when doing so demeaning other peoples interests and lines of work. Am I meant to just stay quiet?

Where was that?

Some posters were replying by saying 'XG is a load of shyte' whereas I gave what I thought was a reasonable and logical opinion.

Why single me out?

It seems everyone demands their right to an opinion but some get all upset when I give mine.

Did I ever say you should keep quiet?

You were the one telling people they're wrong. If you can't see someone's honest opinion, without becoming hysterical, saying you'll stop posting and that it's ruining people's enjoyment, perhaps it says more about you than it does about me.

Stats are just stats, football is football imo. Stats may be a bit of fun and interesting but I don't see why people become so defensive tbh.
 
Is there any data on crosses into the box? There was at least 5 first half yesterday that were absolutely beautiful crosses. Just needed someone on the end of them.

Wondered if they are picked up on any data analysis? Or if they weren't as good as I thought when watching
 
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Is there any data on crosses into the box? There was at least 5 first half yesterday that were absolutely beautiful crosses. Just needed someone on the end of them.

Wondered if they are picked up on any data analysis? Or if they weren't as good as I thought when watching
This is where there is a flaw in data. Unless there's a metric I am unaware of, crosses that aren't completed aren't measured.

I will do some looking but I think they will just be labelled as incomplete crosses.
 
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As far as I can tell no one has ever scored or saved a goal on a spread sheet.
 
This is where there is a flaw in data. Unless there's a metric I am unaware of, crosses that aren't completed aren't measured.

I will do some looking but I think they will just be labelled as incomplete crosses.
Shame that as there was at least 3 that looked absolutely beautiful and where crying out for a player to get on the end of in the first half.

Where i sit in the east stand i got a really good view of them and they where a nightmare for the defence and ripe for a forward.
 
Another question if no one minds. The GPS tracking the players have, I assume its used in training as well?

Would explain why KS has mentioned team discussions about the team as it would involve data, fitness and also the coaches? So that's 2 lots or data plus and eye test from the coaching group?

Or am I thinking that's too scientific?
 
But the players who score or save for us were signed or play because they look good on a spreadsheet.
Nothing that has happened or is expected is a guarantee it will happen. I will keep faith in my opinions, nothing you say will alter that.
 
But the players who score or save for us were signed or play because they look good on a spreadsheet.

Many of our signings have come here despite looking poor on a spreadsheet ...

... Jack Clarke is just one example.

That's why we're able to sign them for the price we did.

If it was all do do with stats every club in the league would have the same access to them.

It may have been more to do with scouting, personality checks or simply RLB/Speakman's judgement. Stats don't tell you anything about a player's character, previous relationship with players/staff/manager or how he could link up with existing players.

I'm not being contrary but, unless you're actually working for SAFC, you don't really know why they were signed.

You're just guessing what a spreadsheet had to do with it, nothing wrong with that though.
 
Been looking at our subs this morning and found some interesting stuff. Firstly, last night was the first goal or assist by one of our subs this season (Browne against Leeds is down as a Firpo OG). Secondly, we haven't used our full allocation of subs at any point this season which I think is a bit stupid. Thirdly, our subs are so late. The only subs we've made before the 62nd minute were injury related, we haven't made one sub at half time and we've only made nine subs before the 70th minute. The average minute of our first sub is 69

Don't think it's a clever use of subs at all and that is shown by the fact we've had zero goal contributions before last night from them. Even looking deeper into the individual games I think the use of subs has been poor, 1 sub against Millwall in the 58th minute (injury related) when we should be breaking up the flow of play and wasting time for example.
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Been looking at our subs this morning and found some interesting stuff. Firstly, last night was the first goal or assist by one of our subs this season (Browne against Leeds is down as a Firpo OG). Secondly, we haven't used our full allocation of subs at any point this season which I think is a bit stupid. Thirdly, our subs are so late. The only subs we've made before the 62nd minute were injury related, we haven't made one sub at half time and we've only made nine subs before the 70th minute. The average minute of our first sub is 69.8.

Don't think it's a clever use of subs at all and that is shown by the fact we've had zero goal contributions before last night from them. Even looking deeper into the individual games I think the use of subs has been poor, 1 sub against Millwall in the 58th minute (injury related) when we should be breaking up the flow of play and wasting time for example.
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It’s clear that it’s a preference rather than a consequence of squad strength IMO. RLB just isn’t that interested in subs. I’d be okay with that tbf (Pep is exactly the same) if he was more willing to rotate. However he does neither. Hopefully he adjusts this thinking one way or another.