In part one of this series I looked at squad criteria and how England have prepared for the future. The future didn’t look pretty. Let’s look at the second objective set: To give ‘young talent’ (under 24 yrs old) as much playing time as possible in order to develop experienced ‘peak’ age (24-28 yrs old)…

So I thought an interesting project to finish the season on would be using analytics to select the England squad for Euro 2016. A few reasons for this – firstly the nonsense in the media about Rooney’s injury being bad for United and good for England. Then there was this quote highlighted by Tom Worville…

Spur’s last 3 away days (WBA, Southampton, Watford) have seen them set up differently each time. As usual with the graphic below, the bigger a player’s circle the more touches he had, the bigger the arrow, the more passes in that direction. It’s all per 90’d up. Performance Analysts across the land know what it…

There’s been lots of chat recently about Manchester United’s dull but effective defensive strategy. Van Gaal is taking a lot of flak for fielding the most boring bunch of Red Devils since Marc Wilmot ordered plain waffles at Cafe Coupe du Monde in Brazil last summer. Me? I’m not convinced that United are that ace…