Blog Posts

  • How much does Juan Mata to Chelsea?

    One of the main talking points of Chelsea’s season so far has been the lack of playing time for Juan Mata. There was summer speculation as to how much Jose Mourinho liked the player and the possibility that the Spaniard may be on his way out of Stamford Bridge. It’s fair to say the fans…

  • Taking Chances, Taking a Step Back

    Last season we concentrated almost entirely on Premier League shots at Differentgame. How many and where they were taken from to be exact. We’ve demonstrated how all shots aren’t born equal, and how difficult it is to score unless the ball is worked pretty close and central to goal. It’s not exactly been ground breaking…

  • United Uncovered?

    Manchester United continue to confound the blogging analytic community. There doesn’t appear to be a shots model out there in the public domain that explains United’s relentless ability to stick the ball in the net at a far greater rate than their Premier League competitors. This is despite the millions of pounds spent by those…

  • The Key to Key Passes

    There have been many many interesting articles in the analytics community recently, most of which can be seen here. Much has been said about crosses and headers and why style matters. It’s all been discussed to death on Twitter too. It got us thinking here at Differentgame that by using the current version of the…

  • Preventing Opposition Shots from Good Areas

    There are three managers in the Premier League who appear to fully understand the mechanics of taking and conceding shots from the right positions. Well there were three. There’s only one left and his name is Sam Allardyce. One of the others was his partner in football crime, Tony Pulis. The other one was Sir…