One of the sport’s first big signings based on a possession value model became one of the greatest players in Premier League history

What West Ham are achieving this season with the 20th highest revenue in the world should be enshrined in sports legend. The anti-Moneyball. The dumbest guys in the room. This is a story about the triumph of the human spirit

FBRef was not only a brilliant resource generally, it made so much WoSo data available that couldn’t be found elsewhere. Absolutely gutting for fans, data nerds, and those of us who feel these things shouldn’t merely be the preserve of people with lots of money

United have progressively moved away from relatively aggressive and dominant football towards slower possession and less dominance. Guardiola (yellow) and Klopp (red) are where you want to be

Continuing the tradition, I have compiled an end-of-year overview of the soccer analytics content that I liked the most in 2025. This edition includes pointers to about 200 resources, including research papers, blog posts, news articles, podcasts, and webinars.

janvanhaaren.be/posts/soccer...

xStandings — Predict Soccer Standings xStandings simulates every match to forecast league standings. Explore your team’s chances for top 4, title, or relegation — updated weekly.

⚽️ Just launched xstandings.com
Inspired by FiveThirtyEight, xStandings simulates the rest of the season to forecast final standings:
✅ Title, playoff, relegation odds
✅ Match-by-match win/draw/loss predictions
✅ “What if” explorer for upcoming games

There’s fit enough to make a bench, fit enough to meaningfully sub, fit enough to play multiple 90s in short succession, and fit enough to be at your best while doing so. Just because it’s explainable, doesn’t mean it isn’t brutal. They hit a wall.

Here’s the top 20 players in those five leagues for quality of throws into the box in the last 12 months. Note how some clubs are really leaning into it (Brentford, Hoffenheim, Parma, RBL). Kayode is also second for volume of throws into the box per 90 in this period

Usage rate klaxon

Different stories The narrative engine hits overdrive, already

Why didn't you just try to win, Arne?

❓ How balanced are PL squads?

🥅 Man Utd: 55% of value in forwards (+10% vs avg) but only 12% in midfield (-9%).
⚪ Fulham: 44% in defence, league-high.
⚒️ West Ham: Just 5% in strikers, lowest.
🔄 Bournemouth: Strength in wide attack.
🔴 Sunderland: Most balanced.

If you were worried about Trent’s transition defending, have fun watching Frimpong make striker runs while the ball goes the other way

The "stats men" collected data for the 1974 World Cup. Via @statsperform.optajoe.com: Franz Beckenbauer won possession more often than any player, and he completed the most passes into the attacking third.

San Diego FC are setting risky new records in an eye-catching MLS debut No team in the world relies on buildup quite like the newly-formed group of ‘30 strangers’ with teenagers in key positions

If you loved Sarri's Napoli or De Zerbi's Brighton, you should be watching Mikey Varas's San Diego.

I wrote for the Guardian about the risky press-baiting style that makes MLS's newest team its most tactically interesting, statistically extreme and just plain fun.

Some advanced data from Thierno Barry from when we were pushing him to clubs last summer for £10m.

On a footballing level, Partey’s best qualities (line-breakers, advanced tackles) are extremely visible, and his deficiencies (coverage, communication, tempo, full-90 sharpness) were often more subtle.

Zubimendi is one of the best details players in the world.

pretty funny that Arsenal fans have been talking about this side all season as if they have vastly superior options in attack, and yet, even with a Mohamed Salah supernova campaign fueling them...they've lost 5.4 xG through 33 games

The path to now Football data advances from modern companies like Skillcorner are part of a long history of people interested in football trying to understand it better.

There are some (imo) very exciting things coming out of data company Skillcorner at the moment. Naturally, I chose to link it to football's data history, rather than write about the data itself

get-goalside-newsletter-archive.beehiiv.com/p/the-path-t...

Evaluating some common critiques of Martin Ødegaard A deep dive into Arsenal's Captain and some myth busting on some things that are commonly brought up about how he plays

Evaluating some common critiques of Martin Ødegaard - A deep dive into Arsenal's Captain and some myth busting on some things that are commonly brought up about how he plays

Here’s Mikel Merino, he loves tactics. Too much in fact, which is why they didn’t tell him about the plan to play him at no9 until it was too late. He explains all that here, with little crosses and all. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Real Sociedad is a massive disappointment out of possession against Manchester United. Amorim's team can easily create a 4vs3 in the middle against La Real's 4-1-4-1: Zubimendi is marking the player in the left half space, but nobody is jumping on Zirkzee.

How Ousmane Dembele’s false-nine role and PSG’s movement proved too much for Liverpool Luis Enrique's side's intelligence and cohesion came to the fore perfectly at Anfield and left the hosts chasing shadows most of the night

Analysis of Dembele's role in PSG's 1-0 victory against Liverpool, and the importance of off-ball movement for a false-nine approach to work.
www.nytimes.com/athletic/619...

Receiving on the turn, who opens their body to goal the most? — PFF FC BLOG PFF FC’s Head of Data Analysis, Ashley Latter, explores the importance of “Receiving on the Turn”, a technique where players adjust their body orientation when receiving a pass to optimize play progre...

We collect the body orientation of the target player for each pass at the point the pass is played & at the point they receive the ball.

This allows us to measure if a player has opened or closed their body between those two points 📊🔎

www.blog.fc.pff.com/blog/receivi...

Nwaneri had to come off with a cramp for the second game in a row. He is an extremely talented player, but he is only 17. The likes of Foden and Saka never had anywhere near the minutes he has at his age. He is being pushed to his limits because there is no other option.

This is absolutely unbeliveable from a 17 years old player at this level. A complete performance from Ethan Nwaneri.

Ttx

So finally after dedicating considerable time and effort, I'm excited to share my latest piece and is by far my most detailed one.

Here's my words on Xabi Alonso's invincible Bayer Leverkusen's principles of play using detailed data from @statsbomb.com 360
🔗 link.medium.com/VAlMwZ5zLQb

Why Lamine Yamal could be the world's best player before he turns 21 Lamine Yamal is the latest teenage phenom to burst onto the soccer scene, but there's something about him that's just ... different.

At 17, Lamine Yamal has already become one of the best in the world. For ESPN: I wrote about what makes Yamal special, comparison to other teenage talents of the past, the historical rarity of a U21 talent becoming the best in the world, and more
www.espn.com/soccer/story...

City's 2-3-5 shape creating superiority in the center, while opening up the side of the pitch for 1vs1's as the Real Madrid wingers have to come inside. With both Vini and Mbappe up front, Stones is basically the free man in every phase of play as Cama also has to mark B.Silva.