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Michael Edwards: The Engineer Behind Liverpool’s Dominance
Football administration can be tricky, especially as the game has grown to become far more business-oriented than it was years ago. This has led to the inception of the role of Director of Football, an executive with a strong footballing philosophy to lead a team of scouts and analysts to hire the best materials for…
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Using Data to Find a Morgan Gibbs-White Replacement for Sheffield United
The use of data-led scouting is rapidly increasing as the use of numbers in football becomes more and more relevant. Data collated from sites such as Wyscout allows for comparison between players from different leagues across the globe without clubs having incur the cost of sending scouts. This provides football clubs with the facility…
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European Club Competitions 2022-23: What Is on the Line for Countries as the 2024-25 UEFA Reforms Loom Large on Horizon
We enter one of the most crucial seasons of European club competition of all time. There are just two years to go before a major shakeup to the Champions League and its sister tournaments. It will see the three-decade-old group stage round make way for a single league table for the first half of the…
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Finding the Best Championship Centre Midfielder Purely From Data
In today’s write-up, we will be finding the best centre midfielder in the EFL Championship from the 2021/22 season purely by the use of data. Disclaimer: I am not suggesting the players mentioned are better than the rest of the central midfielders in the league; this is purely based on research of data/stats. Just…
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Understanding the Concept of UEFA’s Coefficients System
Last month, UEFA announced the changes that will come to the three men’s club competitions come 2024. Each tournament will move to a single table, referred to as the “Swiss format,” with 36 teams at this league phase. While the 36 teams that partake in the Europa Conference League league phase will only play…
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Analyzing the Numbers Behind Stefano Pioli’s Scudetto-Winning Milan
After an 11-year title drought that saw managers such as Vincenzo Montella, Gennaro Gattuso and Marco Giampolo come and go, a decade-long ‘banter era’ filled with horrendous signings and pitiful performances, Milan have reclaimed their spot atop Italian football. The Rossoneri have edged last year’s champions Inter Milan by just two points, snatching the…
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The Underlying Stats Behind Arsenal’s Progress Under Mikel Arteta
The perception of Arsenal’s season has changed dramatically in the past few weeks. For much of the campaign, they were heralded for their coterie of exciting young players who had been assembled, coached, and assimilated within an astute tactical framework established by their equally compelling and youthful head coach, Mikel Arteta. Now, as they…
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Data Analysis: Nico Schlotterbeck
Perhaps no role in modern football is as difficult to perform as a center-back. For most teams, central defenders are the starting point of their attack and need to be accomplished on the ball both through dribbling and passing. As more teams adopt high-pressing systems, they need to be capable of resisting pressure from…
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Data Analysis: Albert Sambi Lokonga
Top teams in the Premier League rarely purchase players from outside of Europe’s top five leagues. If they do, they tend to be young talents who go out on loan or develop in the academy system rather than players who move straight into the first-team squad. Arsenal broke this trend when they signed Albert…
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Data Analysis: Vinicius Junior
It’s hard to imagine the scope and scale of pressure Vinicius Junior has had to face at Real Madrid. As an eighteen-year-old, he walked into the Santiago Bernabeu with his €46 million price tag looming large over him, a constant reminder of his status not just as an exciting young player but as the impending…
