So the with the news yesterday that Mr. Justice Floyd had ruled in Liverpool’s favour and the club was once again seemingly able to move forward we, as fans, rejoiced. Waldorf and Statler had been pushed over the balcony; the Chuckle Brothers who had been pushing the club from ‘me to you’ for the past 3 years would at last be off the air, for good. Or so we thought. Somehow, someone somewhere has decided that Texans have jurisdiction in England, and has convinced the taller, fatter Chuckle brother that he has grounds to sue for somewhere in the region of £1 billion (or $1.6 billion). It’s tedious, it’s a mess, and he doesn’t have a chance in hell, let’s be honest. It’s just one more attempt to stall the process (much like, I imagine, the rumours that he’s sold his shares to Mill Financial), and he’s getting desperate.
Hicks and Gillett’s circus has stopped being interesting, and call it bluster, or overconfidence but I believe NESV, headed by John Henry, will be in control of the club sooner than we think. So one thing that does interest me is something called Saber metrics. Or: the objective analysis of baseball through statistical evidence.
Now, while Saber metrics (the term is taken from the acronym SABR – Society for American Baseball Research) doesn’t directly apply to football (or ‘soccer’), it could well be implemented – in a slightly less rigorous way than in baseball – once the NESV takeover goes through.
The reason this could be important for Liverpool is that, saber metrics is behind the recent success that the Red Sox have had. The man slated as the ‘father’ of this concept, Bill James, was hired by the Red Sox GM Theo Epstein after he signed on in 2003, before they went on to win 2 World Series since adhering to this saber metrics model that James built on in the 70’s.
Since football has advanced since the dawn of the Premier and Champions Leagues, statistics have become increasingly important. We keep tables of goals, assists, tackles; pass percentages, goals to games ratios, saves made, clean sheets and more. For the Championship Manager generation, these stats have become invaluable when backing up our arguments at the pub over who is a better frontman, and which defender is better than which when in one on one situations. But whereas in baseball these kind of stats have come to be used to actually sign players and mould teams, in English football at least, they are used for little more than to signify the form of players or how good a match or season a certain player has had.
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yeh,good news.now lets get rid of hodgson and get kenny or klinsman as coach.lets get new players like afelay,lopez, lass diara,arda turan,taye taiwo,steve taylor.lets sell kuyt(11m),lucas(7m),maxi(2m),kygiakos(2m)babel,(9m),ngog(3m)insua(5m),agger(7m),poulsen(3m)konchesky(2m)plessis(1m),elzhar(1m) giving us 53m plus the 20 from the new owners and we have 70m to spent on the players i said.
I would not think those type of statistics stack up in football.
Baseball is very much like cricket in that it is a sport though a team sport is very much controlled by individual performances.
The one thing needed in building a successful side is having players that suit the league and style of play.
Gelling as a side and flair/creativity are often things statistics do not account for.
With the central contracts in place, English player can now play with the freedom their talent warrants.