Not That Kind Of 5-1

[plymouth wanderer]

He's actually Brazilian and lived there until he was 13/14 if memory serves, but qualifies through Spanish citizenship.

Yeahhhhh. you Wiki'd that shit didn't ya!!

[boltonboris]

Ha. I remember it from when we signed him. Not many black or even mixed race Spaniard around.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

DSB:
Fascinating. I note that your source is four-four-two powered by Opta. Is this a commercial enterprise or is it something that is distributed free, and where do they get their raw data from, and how is it gathered (manual, computer program, a combination: taken from film, live at the match)?????

[coffeymagic]

DSB:
Fascinating. I note that your source is four-four-two powered by Opta. Is this a commercial enterprise or is it something that is distributed free, and where do they get their raw data from, and how is it gathered (manual, computer program, a combination: taken from film, live at the match)?????

When the fever for stats first started about 10 years ago I sat next to a lad in the press box who was compiling the data for one of the 'big boys'.

I don't know if it's changed now, with so much money riding on the say of Ray Winston's revolving head but at the time he freely admitted that most of the stats were 'made up'.

I'm sure it's 100pc accurate these days.

If you like stats watch Grand Prix or the Cricket.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

DSB:
Fascinating. I note that your source is four-four-two powered by Opta. Is this a commercial enterprise or is it something that is distributed free, and where do they get their raw data from, and how is it gathered (manual, computer program, a combination: taken from film, live at the match)?????

When the fever for stats first started about 10 years ago I sat next to a lad in the press box who was compiling the data for one of the 'big boys'.

I don't know if it's changed now, with so much money riding on the say of Ray Winston's revolving head but at the time he freely admitted that most of the stats were 'made up'.

I'm sure it's 100pc accurate these days.

If you like stats watch Grand Prix or the Cricket.

Methinks, coffeymagic, that thou'st anti-stat. Personally speaking I don't even notice who's got the ball as the game develops live before my very eyes most of the time, so I'm not sure that stats are going to help me to decide on what I actually saw
Having said that, I think (if they are accurate) then the sort of stats that DSB used in his article are precisely those that can illuminate the sort of points he was making, and therefore I'm not anti utilising them in a post match discussion.
As for Grand Prix, I gave up watching that years back after I realised it was run solely for the benefit of some rich wankers who were paid far too much... (oooer, sounds familiar).
And, cricket, I don't 'get' cricket, about as unfascinating a game as could ever be invented.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

DSB:
Fascinating. I note that your source is four-four-two powered by Opta. Is this a commercial enterprise or is it something that is distributed free, and where do they get their raw data from, and how is it gathered (manual, computer program, a combination: taken from film, live at the match)?????

DSB works for Four Four Two magazine (online) and Opta stats is a commercial enterprise. I assume Four Four Two pay a hefty subscription/licence fee for the data.

http://www.optasports.com/about/how-we- ... ocess.aspx

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Opta collate stats from live TV feeds, watched in an office high above Waterloo Station. Someone watches and logs the home team, someone does the away team, someone else double-checks.

http://balls.ie/football/a-day-with-opta-sports/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They've won (from the Press Association) the rights to cover the Football League next season, too.

As for the screengrabs themselves, and here I stray dangerously close to advertising, they're from FourFourTwo's free Stats Zone app.
http://fourfourtwo.com/statszone/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EDIT: Ah, cheers AT. It's more "partnership" than "hefty fee"

[coffeymagic]

In his Pulitzer Prize winning novel 'Life at the Kop' my mate Phil Neal talked about his time at Northampton under his boss Charlie Someone.

Charlie had 'Charlie's Charts' which were documented evidence (collated by the reserves) of how far each player had run, dribbled, how many passes complete/failed and so on.

That bloke was years ahead of his time. If only he'd have thought about selling it.

And inventing the computer.

Mind you Phil Neal also talks about 'Great nights' under 'Shanks' when he was in fact Bob Paisley's first signing.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Cheers for the links AT, DSB.

And, very good coffeymagic.

[thebish]

Mind you Phil Neal also talks about 'Great nights' under 'Shanks' when he was in fact Bob Paisley's first signing.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

If he were Bob's first signing, he probably saw a fair bit of Shanks hanging around Melwood until he got the David Brent "You can't keep coming here, you don't work here any more"

[Lord Kangana]

Personally, I think the high water mark arrived a couple of months later at Birmingham in the cup.

Theres no doubt, in my mind, that the injury to Holden changed the entire direction of Coyle's career and Bolton Wanderers. He wasn't superman, but much as Davies was fundamental to the Allardyce game-plan (and as DSB points out, now its Carroll) so was an athletic midfield to Coyle. Once Stu went, and the relationship with Muamba broke down, the nails went into the coffin and our fate was sealed.

Nice article though, still.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Agree wholeheartedly than Holden's injury crippled Coyle's gameplan. But question marks remain over his refusal to change that gameplan thereafter, and his subsequent use (or not) of Muamba.

[CAPSLOCK]

There's only question marks if you can't see he's a clueless cock who got lucky with Holden then spunked his Cahill inheritance on Sordell and Ream

[Lord Kangana]

I don't think 1/4 of an Elmander is exactly a spunking.

Perhaps a small spurt?

[Lord Kangana]

Agree wholeheartedly than Holden's injury crippled Coyle's gameplan. But question marks remain over his refusal to change that gameplan thereafter, and his subsequent use (or not) of Muamba.

Don't get me wrong, it was effectively the Muamba-Holden axis that was hiding quite a few faults. Not least, I think, is that with a decent fitness and conditioning coach the flaws of our system may not have been so ruthlessly exposed.

If you look at that first few months of that season, the likes of Davies and Elmander were doing a fair bit of work up front, and a was Lee (it would be stretching it to say that Petrov did!). This slowly died out, in conjunction with losing the two players who were absolutely fundamental in making his system work. I genuinely thought NRC might have been an adequate replacement, but by then Coyle seemed to have forgotten what had made us tick the previous year.

[CAPSLOCK]

I don't think 1/4 of an Elmander is exactly a spunking.

Perhaps a small spurt?

So we're now inventing a 22 million price tag for Elmander?

[CAPSLOCK]

Oh aye, thanks to his managerial inability, those two only had to be good enough to play in Division 2
He couldn't even do that
Anyway, life's good now, thanks to Douglas

[Worthy4England]

I don't think 1/4 of an Elmander is exactly a spunking.

Perhaps a small spurt?

I'm guessing that's adjusted for the Bolivian inflation rate, as Elmander's price goes up every time you mention him?

[Lord Kangana]

He said the Cahill inheritance. That would be two million quid.

Woohoo betty, pack the bags, I've bought a Carribbean island for us.