Soccernomics - Simon Kuper (1 Viewer)

[scroobiustom]

Just stated reading this book, in short its very much the "moneyball" idea of baseball, but for football and raises interesting points on issues like racism.

Authors are a sports economist and a journalist and if you get a chance give it ago!

Also if anyone has any other decent football books (downloadable) I would be grateful!

 

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[Sutty]

I've read this, very interesting stuff. Moneyball's good as well, both the book and the film. I'm a bit of a stats geek though so it's the kind of stuff that appeals to me.

Other good ones:

Inverting the Pyramid, Jonathan Wilson - A bit heavy if you aren't that into the tactical side of the game though.
Will You Manage?, Musa Okwonga - Basically looks at the skill set required to be a football manager.

For something a bit lower brow, Zlatan Ibrahimovic's autobiography is available on the kindle. Good for a laugh!

 

[SuperCov]

Just stated reading this book, in short its very much the "moneyball" idea of baseball, but for football

Moneyball's the film about the Oakland Athletics right and they hire the chap who works out is it a players on base %?

What sort of stats do the use for football, seems interesting.

 

[Sutty]

Moneyball's the film about the Oakland Athletics right and they hire the chap who works out is it a players on base %?

What sort of stats do the use for football, seems interesting.

Yep that's the one.

Obviously football's a bit different to baseball in that stats don't accurately tell you how good a player is. They instead do research like how wage budgets correlate with league position, and can then do research like seeing whether teams with more black players outperform given their wage budget (i.e. black players are underpaid). As I say, if you're into stats you'll love this.

 

[ccfctommy]

Read bits of this book but have never got round to finishing it yet.

 

[scroobiustom]

My favourite quote so far "To get worked up over plays [players], or even games, is as unproductive as a casino manager worrying over the outcomes of individual pulls of the slot machine"