Statistical Dystopia

Can you describe an orchestra? If you were asked to describe your favorite Beethoven piece, or an original Jackson Pollack painting? You can’t. There is an element of fire and passion about them that are immeasurable and indescribable. The intangible parts of the art are what arguably make it the most beautiful.

In a world increasingly dominated by statistics, we are losing the significance of the intangibles in football. The qualities that can’t be put on a stat sheet can sometimes be the most important when it comes to influencing a game. There is a rising tide of thought that a stat sheet can tell all and understandably so to an extent. Numbers are tangible and easy to use for comparison on important matters to the game, but sometimes they fail to paint the whole picture when it comes to how important a player can be. There’s a beauty to the chaos of the brushstrokes. Calculated randomness, fluidity of a decision made at a moments notice, these are what make our game so beautiful.

Ngolo Kante is the prime example of this. With Kante, you have a player whose off the ball influence has won him two titles in two seasons. Arguably the best defensive midfielder in the Premier League for quite some time, people need to take their heads up from the numbers on a piece of paper to watch his talent. You can’t write down how good he is. He doesn’t have the goals or assists, but he makes the whole team around him flow like clockwork. He makes the jobs of everyone else in the Chelsea squad so much easier. He did this with Leicester City last year as well.

Looking at just statistics takes away part of that creative aspect of the game. Looking just at statistics for a football match is like getting someone to go look at a Van Gogh and then describe it to you. They might do a pretty good job at the overall concept, but they would miss all of the crucial small details that make it so beautiful to look at. Football is art in the sporting world. Each match paints a picture that can’t be recreated. In a world where statistics and big data are taking over, we need to preserve the artistry that our game brings.