Soccer analysts have borrowed and created many ways of measuring the game, but they have yet to come up with the sort of unified theory that relates these metrics to each other. Points and positions can indeed be complicated to decompose, but there is a fairly straightforward way to break down goal difference. Doing so reveals which metrics fit together… and which don’t. Goal difference – the difference between goals scored and conceded – is highly correlated with positions at the end of the season, and arguably a bit less idiosyncratic. It can also be broken down into four simple components. One of these…
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