Outside the Box: A Statistical Journey through the History of Football

Description

Outside the Box deconstructs the never-before-seen stats from data company, Opta, and helps us understand the beautiful game. In football, numbers are everywhere. From touches in the opposition box to expected goals, clear-cut chances to win-loss ratios. In the modern game, these numbers help provide the narrative, the drama, and the conversation. They are scrutinised in order to justify results and to predict future outcomes. They even dictate transfer policy and drive clubs to achieve the impossible. But when did the numbers become so important and what do they mean? In Outside the Box, Duncan Alexander looks back at twenty-five years of the Premier League and beyond, uncovering the hidden truths and accepted myths that surround the game. Using the archives of OptaJoe and never-before-seen data, we discover why Liverpool have gone 27 years without winning a league title and why Lionel Messi is the best player in the game's history. Or is he? Insightful, wry, and hugely entertaining, Outside the Box is an enlightening and accessible account of football across the decades, analysing data from the some of the greatest seasons, players, teams and managers.

Duncan Alexander is the co-founder of the OptaJoe Twitter account, one of Britain's top football statisticians and commentators who has almost 1m followers. He live tweets during games with his trademark blend of incisive analysis and droll humour. He works for Perform, one of the world's leading digital sports content and media companies. His first book, OptaJoe's Football Yearbook was published in 2016. Follow Duncan on Twitter @OptaJoe and @oilysailor.

Duncan Alexander delivers his now trademark blend of dry humour and statistical insight in a format that works well. -- Adam Bate * Sky Sports * I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it is one of the best books I have read this year or indeed any year * By The Minute * Freakonomics for football, and it's great fun * Sunday Sport * An enjoyable and entertaining read. **** * Four Four Two * Plenty of statistical gems to keep fact-collectors out of mischief for months . . . an enjoyable and entertaining read * FourFourTwo *