Expected Goals cover art

Expected Goals

The Story of How Data Conquered Football and Changed the Game Forever

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Expected Goals

By: Rory Smith
Narrated by: Simon Darwen
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About this listen

 Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2022

Football has always measured success by what you win, but only in the last twenty years have clubs started to think about how you win. Data has now suffused almost every aspect of how football is played, coached, scouted and consumed. But it’s not the algorithms or new metrics that have made this change, it’s the people behind them.

This is the story of modern football’s great data revolution and the group of curious, entrepreneurial personalities who zealously believed in its potential to transform the game. Central to this cast is Chris Anderson, an academic with no experience in football, who saw data as an opportunity to fundamentally change a sport that did not think it could be changed. His aim: to infiltrate the strange, insular world of professional football by establishing a club whose entire DNA could be built around data.

Expected Goals charts his remarkable journey into the heart of the modern game and reveals how clubs across the world, from Liverpool to Leipzig and Brentford to Bayern Munich, began to see how data could help them unearth new players, define radical tactics and plot their path to glory.

©2022 Rory Smith (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Mathematics Sports Psychology Inspiring

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If you are interested in football this is well worth a listen. I would highly recommend it.

Really interesting

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Fascinating listen. Just as I’d expect from Rory. So knowledgeable, insightful. A brilliant book for true football fans

Expected brilliance

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A cold, complex and often dull subject given life by the stories of real people struggling to be heard making huge changes to the game we know and love.

Glad I listened to it.

Interesting and informative

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This isn't a deep dive into technical metrics but it's a really well written story about how data in football got to this point. Great book, definitely recommended.

Really enjoyable

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An excellent insight into the ever evolving landscape of how data is changing the game

Marvellous

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Brilliant book for any football fans. Looking at a side of the game that’s become more prevalent these days.

Very interesting stuff!

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Great book. Well read and really interesting. You don’t have to love football to listen. But it will help.

Fascinating listen

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I really enjoyed this despite a slightly flat section partway through. Mostly though, well narrated and very interesting. There were no shortage of 'Oh really?' moments.

Fascinating, really enjoyed it

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Really fascinating insight into some of the characters involved in the story of data in football. I really enjoyed how each chapter had its own story while the thread of the story of Chris Andersen ran through the whole book. I do feel like, as is the case in all the other football/data books I've read (all referenced in this book), data claims some victories that can be attributed to other factors somewhat. It comes to the conclusion that we're still some way away from the full impact data can have on the game, which I suspect will be proven correct.

I also really enjoyed the narration.

Really Interesting Insight

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Really enjoyed it. Going out lost of info I wasn’t aware of before reading it. Definitely think anyone interested in football, stats and the data around it would enjoy reading this book.

Interesting Read, worth checking out

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