Blog Posts

  • Another Look at Lukaku

    Well, Everton have shocked everyone by spending £28m on Romelu Lukaku. It’s fairly clear that the kid can score goals. I just wanted to use this quick post to see how he goes about it. The graphic below shows his Premier League shot map from last season. Yellow dots are goals, blue dots are shots…

  • Muhamed Besic v Argentina

    It looks like Everton are finally closing the deal for Bosnian kid, Muhamed Besic. As usual it’s been a protracted affair and full clearance still looks like it’s yet to come, but hey, it wouldn’t be Everton otherwise would it? Most will only have seen Besic during the World Cup. He played all three matches…

  • Tim Howard – What Chance The Hero?

    Tim Howard’s ‘heroic’ display against Belgium was one of the most memorable performances at the World Cup this summer. Everton’s No.1 made a record 16 saves during the game and social media went crazy over it afterwards. I’ve developed a model that allows goalkeepers’ shot stopping performances to be measured. Obviously, not all shots are…

  • Barry, McCarthy and Gibson – The Long and Short of it

    Differentgame is taking an Everton turn this coming season. The aim is to focus on how ‘advanced’ data analytics could be applied to a football club in a meaningful way. Lots of people dislike the use of statistics in football but it is a big part of the future. Advanced data analysis increasingly influences American…

  • Costa Rica Scouting Report

    Undoubtedly Costa Rica are the surprise of the tournament. No-one expected them to qualify from the group stage but here they are in the quarter finals. The secret has been coach Luis Pinto’s adaptability of approach, and today Costa Rica face a Holland team also capable of changing things up. These two teams have been…