Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2009 10:35:00 GMT
Once-upon-a-time football statistics were quite simple: results, tables, crowds, appearances, goals. Nice and straightforward things to which I can relate.
Now it's rather more complex - possession percentages, completed passes, most dribbles, etc. I'm led to believe a lot of this has been influenced by American sports - gridiron, ice hockey, baseball, basketball - and it seems to have grown since the relatively early days of the Premier League and the Fantasy Football craze of the mid 1990s. I recall something called the Opta Carling Index a few years back.
I might be getting old but a lot of this leaves me cold. I'm in no doubt I'd have warmed to it in my younger days - and I can see the argument in favour of statistics drawing attention to the technical side of the game - but my eyes tend to glaze over within seconds of seeing this stuff. One year I purchased the Match of the Day Football Yearbook but the bizarreness of its statistics meant it soon found a home in the Oxfam skip.
I'm mentioning this now because last Monday's Guardian had an advert for a feature known as Chalkboards plastered all over its sports pages. If you don't know what I'm on about try this link: www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards
More specifically here's something from the game I saw last weekend showing Nigel de Jong's contribution (he's number 34 if you have any doubt):
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/09/football-manchester-city-middlesbrough-craig-bellamy-shay-given
Oh dear, my head is hurting. I thought he had a decent game sat in front of the back four but - for the purpose of keeping a clear head - I think I'll keep to the good old-fashioned match report.
Meanwhile a few more stats from the Sky Sports site: www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11662_2705370,00.html
I'm intrigued by how much other people take notice of this material. Do you?
Now it's rather more complex - possession percentages, completed passes, most dribbles, etc. I'm led to believe a lot of this has been influenced by American sports - gridiron, ice hockey, baseball, basketball - and it seems to have grown since the relatively early days of the Premier League and the Fantasy Football craze of the mid 1990s. I recall something called the Opta Carling Index a few years back.
I might be getting old but a lot of this leaves me cold. I'm in no doubt I'd have warmed to it in my younger days - and I can see the argument in favour of statistics drawing attention to the technical side of the game - but my eyes tend to glaze over within seconds of seeing this stuff. One year I purchased the Match of the Day Football Yearbook but the bizarreness of its statistics meant it soon found a home in the Oxfam skip.
I'm mentioning this now because last Monday's Guardian had an advert for a feature known as Chalkboards plastered all over its sports pages. If you don't know what I'm on about try this link: www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards
More specifically here's something from the game I saw last weekend showing Nigel de Jong's contribution (he's number 34 if you have any doubt):
www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/feb/09/football-manchester-city-middlesbrough-craig-bellamy-shay-given
Oh dear, my head is hurting. I thought he had a decent game sat in front of the back four but - for the purpose of keeping a clear head - I think I'll keep to the good old-fashioned match report.
Meanwhile a few more stats from the Sky Sports site: www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11662_2705370,00.html
I'm intrigued by how much other people take notice of this material. Do you?
