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Abrams Press

Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game’s Analytics Revolution

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Format: Hardcover


Description

Soccer has long been driven by instinct, tradition, and intuition―but this fast-moving, idea-driven book shows how analytics is reshaping how the game is played, managed, and understood around the world.In Net Gains, ESPN writer Ryan O’Hanlon takes readers inside the clubs, front offices, and analytics departments pushing the sport forward. From cutting-edge teams to unconventional thinkers, he introduces the data scientists, coaches, and outsiders challenging the way soccer has always worked.In the spirit of Moneyball and modern sports reporting, Net Gains reveals how data is challenging long-held beliefs about how soccer is played and understood.Through a globe-spanning narrative, the book explores how new metrics and experimental approaches are redefining everything from possession and shot quality to player development and team strategy. Along the way, it reveals how a multibillion-dollar sport operated for decades with limited self-examination―and what happens when that begins to change.As competing ideas collide, O’Hanlon shows how complexity, uncertainty, and human behavior continue to shape outcomes no spreadsheet can fully predict.For fans, analysts, and curious readers alike, Net Gains offers a compelling look at how data, intuition, and decision-making intersect in one of the world’s most unpredictable games. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harry N. Abrams


Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 18, 2022


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 288 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1419758918


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 11


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #669,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #20 in Soccer Coaching (Books) #29 in Sports Industry #85 in Soccer (Books)


#20 in Soccer Coaching (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Brilliant storytelling combined with excellent analytics
A great read to hear about both the modern application of and background behind analytics in the beautiful game. Required reading for the modern football fan.
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2023 by Ty
    • One of the best, and most fascinating, books about the beautiful game
I love books about the business of soccer. I saw this and decided to take a chance on it. I am glad I did. First of all, the author is a fellow Long Islander, and had a similar path to my son in playing youth Soccer. That is covered as almost the preface of the book and was a good way to start it off. The book then takes off from there. Instead of bombarding you with stats and how the data for them is collected and applied to the beautiful game, O'Hanlon takes you on a journey through the years and continents (mainly Europe and North America) and looks at the way the game has grown, how stats and data analysis (and the people that support using them) have tried to fight their way to be used to improve clubs. This is hard to describe in a review but the cast of characters interviewed and covered in this book, from clubs, analysts, players, managers, front office people (some who have no experience even kicking a football) are all fascinating and help make this book very readable and one of the best books on the beautiful game I have read. If you are a true fan of the sport this is a must read. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2022 by E-LO
    • Definitive book on the subject
Really terrific read. Highly recommended as the definitive book on the use of data in soccer. Having read this and the recent Rory Smith book on the same subject, which is still inexplicably unavailable in the States, this is by far the better book. Great book.
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2023 by Amazon Customer
    • Must Read for World Cup Fans!
The author does a great job explaining the analytics and how they are utilized by the front office. I am first and foremost a baseball fan but still managed to follow the logic as it is presented in a very methodical but conversational tone. It is interspersed with some fun facts and even funnier tales from his youth. I highly recommend this book for fans of all sports. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2022 by Frank Adams
    • Supremely insightful on the burgeoning world of soccer analytics
O’Hanlon’s multi-disciplinary approach to presenting the short history of data analytics in soccer was eye opening and a tremendous primer to anyone interested in sports analytics.
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2022 by Sefton + Lucy
    • What We Talk About When We Talk About Sergio Busquets
This engaging history of soccer analytics is well worth picking up by anyone with the remotest interest in the topic. O'Hanlon opens the book by talking about his own career as a player who made it to the Division I college level, thus establishing his bona fides as someone who's thought about the game from a higher playing level than probably 0.1% of his readership. He then dives into a very readable history of efforts to use data to improve team performance, tactics, and player valuation, starting with the earliest rudimentary efforts of a few obsessives like Charles Reap in the 1950s and 60s. It's worth noting that the book somewhat in conversation with the work of Stefan Szymanski (Soccernomics), whose writings more or less say that the only analytic that you need to look at for club soccer is the payroll, which, anomalies like Leicester aside, predict success at a very high rate. As anyone who's followed soccer over the past decades knows, it isn't really until the last ten years that analytics really have taken hold throughout soccer. Some of that has to do with the same kinds of resistance to analytics other sports have seen (most famously recounted in the baseball book, Moneyball), but also the higher level of modeling complexity soccer involves. As a sport with 22 players moving without restriction, it's not until recently that the technology (cameras, GPS systems, cloud computing, etc.) has evolved to enable sophisticated modeling tools to be built. What becomes very clear over the course of his presentation of several personalities, bloggers, and teams, is that we are still in the early stages of soccer analytics. Some of the new metrics (such as Expected Goals) have been gaining currency, but the book provides plenty of case studies of where models and metrics aren't quite providing breakthroughs. For example, I quite liked the section where there is widespread agreement throughout soccer royalty that Sergio Busquets was an invaluable player, and yet there is no model or statistic that can really explain why. Readers who enjoy the stats and analytics of sports should definitely pick this up, as should anyone with a serious interest in soccer. It also works as a nice complement to the classic history of soccer tactics, Inverting the Pyramid. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2023 by A. Ross
    • A must read for any fan of the beautiful game
Super insightful read about the world's sport and it's constant evolution
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2022 by E. Hefner

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