After Barcelona's 8-2 victory over SD Huesca, I mentioned that their defense could be more concerning than anything they'd done in the final third. While this was only an issue of a few shots from a single match, it seemed to paint a broader picture than being an anomaly from the early season. At that … Continue reading Barcelona has a Defense Problem
Luis Suarez and Regression to the Mean
Luis Suarez had an interesting season. While he finished the season with 25 goals and 18 assists in La Liga, he was at times frustrating and often had fans shaking their heads. Throughout the season, people speculated that Suarez may have been injured, that Suarez had lost confidence, and that Suarez was just downright past … Continue reading Luis Suarez and Regression to the Mean
Winning Points in Serie A
About a month and a half ago, I briefly covered how teams win points in Serie A. The common narrative is that defense reigns, and I wanted to dive into that a bit more. The goal of the first piece was to determine whether or not that the adage about defense winning championships is true. … Continue reading Winning Points in Serie A
What’s Wrong with Luis Suarez?
It's not secret that Luis Suarez has been a disappointment to start the year. There have been reports of Suarez playing through injury, which has only fueled speculation of his decline. Explanations range from injury to age to confidence, but all of them indicate there's a non-football factor influencing his footballing performance. These speculations have … Continue reading What’s Wrong with Luis Suarez?
Winning Points
Recently, there's been a contentious discussion over at the Juventus SB Nation blog, regarding the best way to win points - whether that comes from attempting to score more or attempting to limit the number of goals conceded. The entire discussion started with the best way to win titles, which quickly turned into a discussion … Continue reading Winning Points
Defensive Contributions Compared to Average
It's been a while since I last did some work around defense, but in my spare time my interest was sparked again - so I started trying to figure ways in which I might be able to advance some of the quantifiable ways players can be judged by defense. This time, instead of merely introducing a … Continue reading Defensive Contributions Compared to Average
New Graphs
What's up BTB? It's been a while (unfortunately), but I wanted to drop by and show some graphs that I've been working on. They're nothing fancy (or new, really), but they're moderately easy to work with and it's the first time anyone I know has been able to produce them at will. I'll probably work … Continue reading New Graphs
Emre Can: Liverpool’s Next Great Midfielder
With Steven Gerrard recently leaving Liverpool to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy, Liverpool lost not only their legend, but their general. With Gerrard having played various roles in central midfield at Anfield for the better part of two decades, Liverpool has a massive hole to fill. They not only need to replace a versatile midfielder - … Continue reading Emre Can: Liverpool’s Next Great Midfielder
France’s Midfield Problem
To be completely honest, this started as an attempt to explain why France is criminally under-utilizing two of the best midfielders on the planet. It started with some statistical adjustments to this equation to not only put players on an even field in terms of possession, but also in terms of competition. The goal is to … Continue reading France’s Midfield Problem
Benteke’s Evolution
Liverpool has been an interesting team the past three years because they, well, look totally different each season. In the 2013/2014 season, the SAS combo of Suarez and Sturridge wreaked havoc on opposing English defenses scoring a combined 52 goals. Steven Gerrard fed ball after ball when SAS wasn't doing it for each other, while … Continue reading Benteke’s Evolution
Box-to-Box Analytics 