Louis van Gaal has been getting a lot of heat in the media this month. Apparently players aren’t happy with his discipline and decisions, and fans aren’t happy with his style of play. Well, guess what – Van Gaal’s Manchester United is doing some important things so well it’s practically miraculous. They’re just not the things that fans and the media seem to appreciate. I’ve already posted here that Van Gaal seems to be overachieving given the talent – including a lot of young players – at his disposal. But how is he doing it? In a word, defending. Currently,…
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What’s happened to Chelsea? The English Premier League’s reigning champions have had a horrendous start to the season, even if their decline in form had already begun last term. I’ve heard a variety of explanations ranging from fatigue to style of play to what’s-the-matter-with-Matic, but another one has been on my mind for some time. A month ago I mooted the idea on Twitter that Mourinho’s attack on Eva Carneiro lost him the confidence of his players. Now, you might read this and say, “Hey, aren’t you a data analyst, not a psychologist?” – and you’d be right. Yet a…
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Lately there’s been a lot written about the importance of analytics at Liverpool Football Club. The negative articles claim the analytics department there was responsible for flops like Aspas and Suso. The positive ones give the analysts credit for Coutinho, Sturridge, and Can. And pretty much all of them say there was tension between the club’s former manager, Brendan Rodgers, and the numbers folks. Believe it or not, this isn’t how analytics works at every club around the world, or even in the Premier League. Usually I recommend analytics as a first cut for recruiting, to narrow down the pool…
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