[This is an expanded post of the one I published on HexagonalBlog today (11 March). I've now bumped it to the top and added some more analysis to make it a one-parter in the end.]Most people would say that CD Saprissa's artificial turf gives them a significant home advantage. But Saprissa's stadium has always been […]
I had said after the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference that I would write a more detailed summary of the conference, but let things slide until a couple of readers reminded me of what I had promised. It's been a couple of weeks and my initial feelings are a little fuzzy now, but here are my […]
This isn't really an analytics kind of post, but it's relevant because we as analysts often have to communicate our ideas and results to people who don't have the same level of expertise, and it's important that we present information so that we don't lose decision-makers or lose credibility. Ben Alamar wrote a post to […]
Below is the Pythagorean table for the 2010-11 English Premier League season, for matches played up to 11 March 2011. The league Pythagorean exponent is 1.70. Tottenham has been the real overperformer this season, which few people will complain with. Chelsea have underperformed this season — again, few will argue with that statement — but […]
Below is the Pythagorean table for the 2010-11 Spanish Primera División season, for matches played up to 11 March 2011. The league Pythagorean exponent is 1.70. Barcelona and Real Madrid have had strong seasons, but the two-horse race (or one-horse race if you wish to be truthful) that the two giants have created has obscured […]
Below is the Pythagorean table for the 2010-11 German 1. Bundesliga season, for matches played up to 11 March 2011. The league Pythagorean exponent is 1.70. Hannover 96 have cooled off considerably, but they are still vastly overperforming the rest of the Bundesliga and lie in a Champions League place. Stuttgart have improved from their […]
Below is the Pythagorean table for the 2010-11 Italian Serie A season, for matches played up to 11 March 2011. The league Pythagorean exponent is 1.70. I use points earned on the field of play, so Bologna's point deductions are not taken into account. League Table Pythagorean Team GP W D L GF GA […]
Below is the Pythagorean table for the 2010-11 French Ligue 1, for matches played up to 11 March 2011. The league Pythagorean exponent is 1.70. Lille appear to be performing in line with their expectations, but Rennes have managed to cobble wins despite the lack of a consistent goalscorer. As a result they have a Pythagorean […]
I am very pleased to announce that I have been invited to attend the Leaders in Performance conference, to be held at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea FC on the 7th of October. I am flattered, humbled, and honored that the organizers invited me, and I am looking forward to interacting with football managers, technical and performance […]
D. R. Brillinger, "A Potential Function Approach to the Flow of Play in Soccer", Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 3(1): Article 3, 2007. [Link]How does one describe mathematically the run of play in a soccer match? In this paper, the author proposes a scalar potential to describe in time and space the sequence of […]
