[Signor_Maresca]

Just thought I'd share this article, which I think is a fantastic and really interesting read.

It details how a small Danish club are using a revolutionary stats based approach to running their club with remarkable results (they are top of the top division), the owner of the club also owns Brentford who are also on the rise.  It's not as dry as it sounds!

https://decorrespondent.nl/2607/How-data-not-humans-run-this-Danish-football-club/230219386155-d2948861

[DaveWBA]

The Brentford owner came out recently and stated this is the reason behind Warburton leaving at the end of the season as he was reluctant to hand over the reins on transfers and player recruitment to a data bod. It will be interesting to see how this pans out, I hope it goes well. In many ways we incorporate certain aspects of this model into the way we run ourselves in particular when we had Ashworth.

Lots of parallels to Moneyball if anyone has ever read / seen that? It's worth noting that Billy Beane the man behind Moneyball has recently been appointed at AZ Alkmaar in an advisory role. More of this school of thought seems to creeping into modern football it seems, hopefully allowing teams with smaller budgets to level the playing field somewhat.

[FallOutBoy]

The Brentford owner came out recently and stated this is the reason behind Warburton leaving at the end of the season as he was reluctant to hand over the reins on transfers and player recruitment to a data bod. It will be interesting to see how this pans out, I hope it goes well. In many ways we incorporate certain aspects of this model into the way we run ourselves in particular when we had Ashworth.

Lots of parallels to Moneyball if anyone has ever read / seen that? It's worth noting that Billy Beane the man behind Moneyball has recently been appointed at AZ Alkmaar in an advisory role. More of this school of thought seems to creeping into modern football it seems, hopefully allowing teams with smaller budgets to level the playing field somewhat.

I remember when Ashworth was in charge it was a model we had in mind, even if we didn't use it outright; it was something we bore in mind during scouting. I think it can work in the right hands.

[Albionic]

The Brentford owner came out recently and stated this is the reason behind Warburton leaving at the end of the season as he was reluctant to hand over the reins on transfers and player recruitment to a data bod. It will be interesting to see how this pans out, I hope it goes well. In many ways we incorporate certain aspects of this model into the way we run ourselves in particular when we had Ashworth.

Lots of parallels to Moneyball if anyone has ever read / seen that? It's worth noting that Billy Beane the man behind Moneyball has recently been appointed at AZ Alkmaar in an advisory role. More of this school of thought seems to creeping into modern football it seems, hopefully allowing teams with smaller budgets to level the playing field somewhat.

good read, I wdo wonder if Sam Allardyce has been adopting this approach for some years, (more by intuition than analysis maybe)

[AlbionFan]

I wonder what system TP adopts for his player recruitment?

[Albionic]

I wonder what system TP adopts for his player recruitment?

Am I looking up to him? does he understand me?  can he hoof it, when required? Can he run all day? When I shout jump-does he?

JUMP !!

he did, he's signed!

[Legend]

To be fair Pulis can't do much worse than the player recruitment of the past two seasons with the odd exception. Fletcher has been a great signing and McManaman has great potential. Enjoyed reading that article and some good points made especially about the importance of watching videos of a player in lots of games instead of sending scouts to live matches to base a player on a few games.

[albiontilidie]

Very interesting article of how it all works, Good read

Thats Benham stats company - Smart odds if anyone fancies looking into it even more

[johnny Cash]

Statistical analysis clearly has a place in football, but it will never produce the results it will in a sport like baseball in my opinion.

Baseball is quite repetitive in its nature - pitch, swing, pitch, swing.  Football has far too many variables, far more thinking in game and the opponents can do far more to effect a players choices and options. 

[AlbionFan]

Statistical analysis clearly has a place in football, but it will never produce the results it will in a sport like baseball in my opinion.

Baseball is quite repetitive in its nature - pitch, swing, pitch, swing.  Football has far too many variables, far more thinking in game and the opponents can do far more to effect a players choices and options.

I think you have a very good point there, but I also think that with computer mathematical modelling I'm sure variables could be included or excluded to produce a fairly reliable outcome

[costa blanca baggie]

Imagine what the post match analysis will be like with scientists. It's dreadful enough with ex-players.

[Jeremy Roland Peace]

Statistical analysis clearly has a place in football, but it will never produce the results it will in a sport like baseball in my opinion.

Baseball is quite repetitive in its nature - pitch, swing, pitch, swing.  Football has far too many variables, far more thinking in game and the opponents can do far more to effect a players choices and options.

I agree with this but I also think that it can have an effect.

I read the other day about Billy Beane saying that the people that own the Oakland A's baseball team also own an MLS team (San Jose Earthquakes I think) and that he was trying to replicate what he does with the Baseball equation to football but that he is yet to come up with anything yet due to all the extra factors of football plus the added salary cap issues with MLS.

Maybe if he can get something to work with AZ it might start filtering into more clubs