If you can be bothered to scroll back through the transfer thread, there's at least the statistics somewhere.
Here you go, my friend. I hope this is what you were after ... please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
I think its personally easier to say that he's played 18 games (1488 minutes) domestically and scored 14 and assisted 5 times. in the domestic cups played 4 1 assist and in the CL played 6 (523mins) and scored 2 no assists. Its not too bad. last year he played 30 games and scored 6 and assisted 5. really this also goes down to how porto set it up and where he starts from. he has a blank slate now.
BEHIND THE BADGE From CERN to LFC: The 'weird' journey of William Spearman, Liverpool's lead data scientist “It’s a bit of a weird transition!” admits William Spearman, and it’s hard to disagree. After all, how – and indeed why – do you go from earning a PhD in physics from Harvard and working at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) to being part of Liverpool FC’s research department? “Unlike many people working in football, I grew up being really bad at most team sports… I still am, and that’s probably not a surprise given that I am one of the nerds of the place!” Spearman, the club’s lead data scientist, explains. “I was much more focused on individual sports and science and maths. I was in my early 20s when I first got interested in team sports and I started watching American football. I had friends in Boston and I became a huge fan of the New England Patriots. “The thing I’d really enjoyed about physics was working on a problem that there’s no established solution for. But towards the end of my PhD, I found myself repeating the same type of analysis others had done previously. “I wanted to work in an area that wasn’t as established, so sports data seemed really interesting to me. I was very interested to learn about the work being done in American football and baseball and then I got my first taste of proper football data and that was just fascinating. “For example, with baseball there have been advanced statistics around for 40 or more years because it’s a simpler game with a clear outcome to every play, but with football there is an elegance that is much harder to quantify. “It’s a much more complex sport and that’s what makes it much more interesting to me.” Born in Chicago to parents Mark, an industrial engineer, and Blair, a biologist, Spearman moved to the small Texas city of College Station as a child. The journey that would eventually lead to him emigrating to Merseyside began in 2005 with a science degree at the University of Dallas. A doctorate in high-energy particle physics at Harvard followed, along with several sojourns to Geneva, where he worked on the discovery of the Higgs boson particle at CERN. It was around this time that Spearman realised he did not want to pursue the conventional career paths - namely becoming a scientist or working in finance - taken by many of his fellow physics PhD graduates. With his interest piqued through a new-found passion for the Patriots, Spearman explored the possibility of applying his skills to sports data and started doing so by joining performance analytics company Hudl in 2015. It was there that Spearman discovered the complex beauty of football and he illustrates what enchanted, and enchants, him about the game. “You’ve got 22 players on a large field. There is a high degree of coherence to their interactions yet it is individual brilliance that is often decisive. “In American football the play starts and stops and you can measure what happened at the end of it. But in football, goals are relatively rare so you have to try to quantify how you get to those places where you can score. “You look at things where you don’t have a distinct outcome, you look at things where it’s not clear if it was good or bad. It’s just a beautiful game and you can enjoy it on so many levels. Just watching it, it’s great seeing the fantastic goals and the great passes, but it just has so much depth to it. “As I started playing with the data and watching as a fan I fell more in love with it and over time it became the primary sport I was interested in, pretty quickly supplanting my initial interest in American football.” The use of data science in football was, at that point, in its infancy and Spearman saw an opportunity to build something from scratch; something new and exciting. Little did he know that an off-the-cuff project carried out in his spare time would come to define his career. “Over a weekend me and a friend decided to look at space, because football is a game of space, and we ended up putting together a model of pitch control,” he says. “I looked and I hadn’t seen people doing something particularly similar. I showed it to some of the football analysts at Hudl and they thought it was fascinating and suggested I present it publicly. “That’s actually how I met Ian, Tim and Daf for the first time, in 2016 in London…” Spearman is referring to Ian Graham, Tim Waskett and Dafydd Steele; collectively known as Liverpool’s research department and peers who would first become friends and later colleagues. “I was extremely nervous because I was in a room with people from Liverpool, PSG, Barcelona and whatnot; people who know more about football than I could ever possibly know!” Spearman recalls, with a smile, of that first presentation. “I was getting up there showing stuff that I’d largely just worked on for fun for a week or so. But it was something people were really interested in, despite the fact that it was pretty early doors. “I realised then that by coming at this from a new perspective we can really develop some interesting ideas on the mathematical modelling side with the data. It was really exciting.” What exactly does ‘pitch control’ mean? “Basically, it’s just the regions of the pitch that one player or a team are in control of,” Spearman clarifies. “So, if a team were to try to pass to that point, that team would be in control. It shows how you can close off space, how you can create space with runs. “It’s the fundamental notion of how you control space and how space is valuable. We call it ‘off-ball scoring opportunity’, which is an extension of the idea of pitch control.” Immediately, Spearman felt a connection with Graham, Waskett and Steele. “We got on really well. We’d see each other at these talks and conferences and would always get together for drinks and a chat,” he notes. “I remember thinking, ‘That’s cool, there are two physicists and a mathematician working for a football club!’ and that’s actually when I first started following Liverpool because they had people like me working for the club.” An opportunity to work for Liverpool arose and Spearman, who would join in March 2018, describes: “It was a difficult decision whether to pursue it or not. I’d just moved back to Dallas after being in Boston for a while. “I was fairly established there, this would have meant moving countries and my girlfriend [now wife, who later joined Spearman in Liverpool] was there. But it seemed like a really interesting career move that would allow me to apply the stuff I was working on and allow me to focus on it. “I was aware that Ian was one of the best in the business and that his team was one of the best. I’d fallen in love with the football data and I wanted to work on it as much as I could. “It was a big life change but I wanted the opportunity to make an impact that is tangible. “One of the reasons I chose not to go into finance or business was that I wanted to pursue something I could be really passionate about rather than just a job where I was living solely for the weekends and the pay check. For me, I enjoy finding fulfilment in other ways: challenging questions, doing something that is exciting for people, being involved in something that is bigger than myself. “Seeing the passion of Liverpool fans, the passion of sports fans, that was really exciting to me.” During his first year at the club, Spearman refined his earlier work on ‘pitch control’ and its extensions, but his duties are now more focused on applying his work in various areas, including recruitment and pre- and post-match analysis. Tracking data sees the positioning of all 22 players and the ball tracked by cameras placed around the stadium at a rate of 25 frames per second. Along with ‘event data’ such as ball touches, this is used in Liverpool’s match analysis and recruitment work. “With the tracking data I’m able to answer a lot of the same questions as you can with event data, but usually with a lot more context,” Spearman details. “For example, in event data you can’t really say if a back-pass was a good idea or not because the ball is moving away from goal, which doesn’t look good. But the tracking data will tell you whether the player was under pressure at the time. Was he opening up a passing lane forward by passing back? “You’re able to get the context that provides much more clarity.” Spearman deciphers tracking data on Liverpool and opposition players in games, writes a statistical view of every match and delivers this to the club’s analysts, who in turn present their report to Jürgen Klopp and his coaches. He also works on bespoke data projects with coaches and analysts, and the data produced by his model is consulted and evaluated during the Reds’ player recruitment process. “I work in the scouting office and having conversations with the very smart guys there has really helped my understanding of the game and the development of the model too,” Spearman acknowledges. He is approaching his four-year anniversary at Liverpool and feels privileged to have worked in the background during a modern-day golden age that has seen Klopp’s team mature into English, European and world champions. “Day to day, being involved in the workings of the club gives me a huge sense of job satisfaction and strangely, that’s actually strongest after a bad result,” Spearman concludes. “I get very emotional watching the games, so being able to soberly sit down and analyse the game and recognise the positive points and say, ‘Here is what went well and here is what didn’t.’ That’s really compelling. “My favourite moment has got to be the Champions League final in Madrid, especially after the low of Kiev. With this manager, this staff and this group of players, you can’t ever doubt. They’re just phenomenal. “I think the most rewarding parts of the job are the camaraderie at the training ground and being able to watch this group of players prove how good they are. “Coming here was a big thing, a big life change. But I have no regrets."
Statistics FEW INTERESTING FACTS FROM OUR DATABASE Liverpool FC has scored 10161 goals in 5829 competitive matches registered at LFChistory. 204 of those goals are own goals and 533 came from the penalty spot. 461 players have scored a goal for Liverpool FC. 426 players have scored a league goal for Liverpool FC. Liverpool has scored 1.7 goals on average in each game. 785 players have played in competitive matches for Liverpool FC since 1892. 15165 players have played against Liverpool FC since the 1893-1894 season. THE LAST ... Game was against Crystal Palace on Sunday, 23 Jan 2022 Goal was scored by Crystal Palace on Sunday, 23 Jan 2022 Own goal was scored by Alisson Becker against West Ham United on Sunday, 07 Nov 2021 Sending off was Andy Robertson against Tottenham on Sunday, 19 Dec 2021 Penalty goal was Fabinho Tavarez against Crystal Palace on Sunday, 23 Jan 2022 Missed penalty was Mohamed Salah against Leicester City on Tuesday, 28 Dec 2021 Home win was against Brentford on Sunday, 16 Jan 2022 Home draw was against Arsenal on Thursday, 13 Jan 2022 Home defeat was against Fulham on Sunday, 07 Mar 2021 Away win was against Crystal Palace on Sunday, 23 Jan 2022 Away draw was against Chelsea on Sunday, 02 Jan 2022 Away defeat was against Leicester City on Tuesday, 28 Dec 2021
We were dominant but non threatening up until the goal. Then we gradually got into the game and started causing more problems ... please log in to view this image
as i said in match thread. Leicester enabled this. they played one up and that player ran away from our CBs most of the time. Rodgers then subbed that one forward and put another on to do the exact same. They played two wide just to track our full backs. this explains the lesser amount of good chances as the space was at the back and in the centre more than for the full backs. Rodgers in effect waved a white flag before the game started. The only way to play LFC is to put 2 players up top and press fast on vvd and matip. Oyu can park the rest behind the ball but you simply have to deny us time on the ball. perversely this might suit burnley into forcing an error or two.
block of 4 complete! I think this shows why 4th is a non issue. 6 more wins will all but secure that. this one isn't as bad as it looks for block 5 as the Leeds game is still not played. block 4 and 6 were decent. I think it does however show why we are not really in the title race unless we beat city and win all our remaining games. this just reinforces the point. when we got "above" 90 points we has no such dips in form. finally I am keeping Leicester for now in top half Bottom half thrashings Games played 12 Goals scored 35 Goal conceded 5 Games won 11 Games drawn 1 Games lost 0 Win ratio 92% Draw ratio 8% Loss ratio 0% Goals per game 2.92 Goals conceded per game 0.42 Top half issues Games played 11 Goals scored 23 Goal conceded 13 Games won 4 Games drawn 5 Games lost 2 Win ratio 36% Draw ratio 45% Loss ratio 18% Goals per game 2.09 Goals conceded per game 1.18 We have beaten wolves, arsenal, man utd and leicester from my "top half" Drawn with cheslea twice, city, Brighton and spurs and lost to west ham and leicester. As it stands theres a debate whether southampton ,villa or leicester with round out the top half in the end. Our run in: Burnely A Leeds H Norwich A Arsenal A West Ham H Brighton A Man Utd H Watford H Man City A villa A Everton H Newcastle A Spurs H Southampton A Wolves H In reality we ought to be trying to win every one of those in isolation but its a very tough schedule from here on in. imo city only need a draw against us and the 6 point gap means they should win this league.
Think rather than top half v bottom half would be accurate if you did top 6 v bottom 14 results. As we’ve only dropped points to brentford Leicester and Brighton outside top 6? and as you say that Leicester villa saints are all interchangeable for top and bottom half in theory. Where as top 6 we’ve dropped to city chelsea x2 West Ham and spurs.
Good work MITO. Essentially we need to win EVERY game if we want to have a chance to win the league. There is no room for slip ups.
If we have a full squad until the end of the season, then I really can see us winning every game because we are a very very good team. The games where we dropped points is where we lost a couple of crucial components.
I could do that. BUt I would insit on doing supoer league 6 v the rest as west sham are in a false position. you are right brentford 2 point, Leicester 3 points, Brighton 2 so far and if we included west sham its 3 points lost thus far. I already did a top 6 table We are not too badly placed but chelsea have played nearly all the games. V the rest: Spurs have basically earned all but 4 of their points off the non top 6 clubs. We are actually only a whisker away from city against the non top 6. that leicester loss (debacle having missed a pen) Basically arsenal and spurs are cannon fodder to the super league 6 rivals but they are doing well against the rest. Utd by contrasts have done well playing the super 6 but disastrously v the rest. Utd sitting deep having got one goal or just plain being **** on set piece etc has lead to teams hammering them (us ) When they play the top 6 they seem to at least just hold their own.
