Analytics FC Podcast
Analytics FC is a football podcast that examines the sport through a data-driven lens. Each episode features a guest from the world of football analytics, discussing how numbers, statistics, and data can provide deeper insights into the beautiful game.
Episodes
Episode 56: Tofa Fakunle, Cavalry FC
Tofa Fakunle is currently the assistant General Manager at Canadian Premier League cub, Cavalry FC.
Before this current role, he was the football operations manager at the same club, and then before that, a professional player.
Based in Calgary, Cavalry FC are one of 8 teams that compete in CPL, which is a relatively new league, having only started in 2019. The league is the only professional le
Episode 55: Ricardo Moreira, Orlando City
Ricardo Moreira currently is General Manager and Sporting Director at MLS club Orlando City SC.
Now in his 7th year at Orlando, Ricardo joined from another MLS side, Columbus Crew, as Orlando's head of recruitment. Ricardo is highly knowledgeable when it comes to building squads around the constraints and regulations that MLS sides must contend with.
In this conversation we touch on a few of tho
Episode 54: Ryan Beal, Sentient Sports
Ryan Beale is the CEO and co-founder of sports AI company Sentient Sports.
After completing a degree in computer science, Ryan went on to do a PhD in Artificial Intelligence. Like many others, he was very keen to combine this skillset with his passion of football and one of the first ways he did this was via Fantasy Football.
From there, Ryan raised capital to fund his startup, and now Sentient
Episode 53: Nikos Overheul, formerly Vancouver Whitecaps, Statsbomb, Brentford FC
Nikos Overheul is an experienced football scouting and strategy professional who has spent time working with various clubs around the world.
Nikos was actually involved with Brentford FC in the early days of their data revolution and since then, spent time with Statsbomb, and Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS.
As well as this, Nikos has also operated as a consultant, aiding teams in their recruitme
Episode 52: David Ray, Plymouth Argyle
David Ray is currently Head of Finance at Championship football club, Plymouth Argyle.
His role is a really interesting one, as it seems he is much more involved with the typical performance and recruitment aspects of the club that a typical head of finance would be elsewhere.
David speaks about the transfer committee they have, how they model and forecast the club’s income to ensure they can r
Episode 51: Gregg Broughton, Chicago Fire FC
Gregg Broughton is the new Sporting Director at MLS side Chicago Fire, having previously held the same role at Blackburn Rovers FC in the English Championship.
Gregg has vast amounts of experience when it comes to player development, squad building and leadership. Prior to Blackburn Rovers, Gregg spent time as head of player development at Norwegian side FK Bodø/Glimt after spells as academy mana
Episode 50: Devin Pleuler, Maple Leaf Sports
Devin Pleuler is currently director of research and development at Toronto based multi-club ownership group, MLSE.
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment have a portfolio of clubs across football, basketball, ice hockey, Canadian football, and even esports. Devin’s role is to oversee each of the analytics departments and also stay on top of exciting trends and opportunities within the world of sports
Episode 49: Special Edition - How to buy a football club (Analytics FC x Ankura)
This month, Analytics FC teams up with Ankura Consulting Group, an independent global expert services and advisory firm, to discuss the process and pitfalls of acquiring a football club. Alex is joined by Analytics FC CEO Jeremy Steele and Ankura's Jonny Gray and Jon Brown to discuss their new partnership.
Episode 48: Dan Micciche, Ex-England, Arsenal and Spurs Coach
This month, Alex spoke to Dan Micciche. Dan is widely regarded as a coaching innovator whose career has encompassed stints at the FA, coaching England youth teams, Arsenal, MK Dons, and most recently, Crawley Town.
Dan talks about the England DNA approach, football and language, and how to create a set-up that fosters creative coaching.
You can find Dan on LinkedIn - he is smart enough to avoid
Episode 47: Special Edition - Brexitball Report with Andy Watson and John Kiely
This month, we spoke to Brexitball expert Andy Watson and immigration lawyer and senior partner at Fragomen LLP, John Kiely, about Analytics FC's ground-breaking new report. The report examines the impact of the GBE regulations on the British transfer market.
The pod discusses, among other things, the difference between the English and Scottish markets, the impact on the Women's game, and breaks d
Episode 46: Mike D'Auria, Second Spectrum
This month, we spoke to Mike D’Auria, Chief Commercial Officer at Second Spectrum, a tracking and analytics provider working in, among others, the NBA and the Premier League.
In our chat, we talked about how Mike came to work in the analytics space, what Second Spectrum do, and how clubs and media organizations are harnessing the power of tracking data to improve understanding of the game, which
Episode 45: Elliott Stapley, Sports Interactive and Football Manager
This month, we spoke to Elliott Stapley, a software engineer working on the match engine and data for Sports Interactive’s Football Manager game.
During our conversation, we talked about how the Football Manager match engine works, how Sports Interactive use data benchmarking to guarantee the realism of Football Manager, and considered what Football Manager can teach us about the game in real lif
Episode 44: David Sumpter, Uppsala University and Twelve Football
This month, we spoke to David Sumpter. David is Professor of Applied Mathematics at Uppsala University, the author of a number of books about data analytics, and the co-founder of football analytics company, Twelve Football. He also works for Hammarby in the Swedish Allsvenskan.
In the course of the conversation, David talked at length about the use of tracking data within football analysis, the
Episode 43: Justinas Gasiunas, First Team Goalkeeping Coach at Hajduk Split
This month, we spoke to Justinas Gasiunas, the first-team goalkeeping coach at Hajduk Split.
After ending his career as a goalkeeper, Justinas has coached with a number of clubs including Brighton and Hove Albion and Brentford.
In the conversation, we talked about the development of goalkeeping analysis, Justinas's processes for analysing opponents ahead of games, and the future of goalkeeping
Episode 42: Kim McCauley, Director of Analytics at Angel City FC
This month, we spoke to Kim McCauley, Director of Analytics at Angel City Football Club. Starting off working in the media, Kim has spent the last year or so setting up an analytics department at one of the newest clubs in the world.
In our chat, we talked about implementing a data strategy from scratch at a club that has no players, working towards an NWSL and NCAA expansion draft, and how the c
Episode 41: Oliver Seitz, Business Intelligence Director at United World
This month, we spoke to Oliver Seitz, business intelligence director of United World.
During his career, Oliver has worked with agents and clubs, he has completed a PhD and lectured on the topic of football business, he has worked on the scouting side of the industry, with coaching staff and with ownership groups. This depth of experience led to a very insightful conversation.
In the course of
Episode 40: Richard Battle, Founding Director of Left Field Football Consulting
This week, we spoke to Richard Battle, founding director of Left Field Football Consulting.
In the conversation, we talked about the processes of implementing data strategies within football, the importance of getting data buy-in at the highest levels, and what the future of data in the football industry looks like.
To find out more about Left Field Football Consulting, visit their website: www.
Episode 39: Peter McKeever, StatsPerform - Visualising Data
This week, Jon spoke to Peter McKeever, Data analyst at StatsPerform and Data Visualisation Editor for Opta’s new website, The Analyst.
In their conversation, they talked about the importance of visualising data within the football industry, the challenges faced by visualisers and how the industry can use visualisation better..
Peter is on Twitter @petermckeever and you can read The Analyst at t
Episode 38: Oliver Gage, Canadian Premier League - Doing Analysis within a League
This week, Jon spoke to Oliver Gage, the director of football for the Canadian Premier League.
Originally from Sheffield, Oliver’s career has carried him to North America via Leeds Met University and Sheffield Wednesday. Working as an analyst, he spent time with Houston Dynamo before joining the newly-founded Canadian Premier League as their director of football in 2019.
In their conversation, t
Episode 37: Hugo Schoukens and Jo Van Hoecke, Double Pass - Assessing Academies
This week, we spoke to Hugo Schoukens and Jo van Hoecke, the co-founders of Double Pass, a Belgian company that assesses, advises and educates (con)federations, leagues, clubs and individuals on optimising their talent development.
We focused on their work assessing football academies and asked what impact the auditing process can have on a club’s academy production.
If you want to find out mor
Episode 36: Alex Farnell - The Impact of Head Coaches on Performance
This week, we spoke to Alex Farnell, an economics researcher at the University of Lancaster looking into labour markets and issues to do with personnel, specifically using data from professional sports to illustrate.
We focused on his work investigating the contribution of Head Coaches to the success of football teams, and whether changing coaches brings the desired change to performance.
His o
Episode 35: Tal Brown, Zone7 - How Predictable Are Injuries?
This week, Jon spoke to Tal Brown, co-founder and CEO of Zone7. We talked about the problem of predicting injuries in sport, the impact of coronavirus on injury and the future of big data in the sports medical sphere.
Through Zone7, Tal and his team develop and apply proprietary artificial intelligence to help athletes, coaches and medical teams forecast injury risk and attain peak performance. H
Episode 34: Tom Worville - Analytics and the Media
On the Analytics FC podcast, we’ll be putting out episodes every month with a thematic focus from using data to analyse injuries to quantifying the cognitive aspect of football, from working with agents to the use of tracking data.
This week I spoke to Tom Worville about Analytics and the media, focusing on the challenges faced by presenting data to a public audience and asking what, if anything,
Episode 33: Christofer Clemens (German National Team)
Joel and Jeremy are joined by Christofer Clemens, the German national team's head of match analysis and scouting.
Tweet us! www.twitter.com/AnalyticsFC
Find Joel and Bobby on twitter:
Joel www.twitter.com/MessiSeconds
Bobby www.twitter.com/BobbyGardiner
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Intro music is MMHHMM by LiamLRY. Logo created by Erik Wagner from the Noun Project.
Episode 32, Part 2: Xarius Desai (Brentford)
We put your twitter questions to Brentford FC's Xarius Desai! Check out our previous podcast with Xarius here: https://soundcloud.com/analytics-fc-podcast/xarius-desai
Tweet us! www.twitter.com/AnalyticsFC
Find Joel and Bobby on twitter:
Joel www.twitter.com/MessiSeconds
Bobby www.twitter.com/BobbyGardiner
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Links from pod:
OneShortCorner https://oneshortcorner.wordpress.com/
Sta
Episode 32, Part 1: Xarius Desai (Brentford)
In which we chat to Xarius Desai, performance analyst at Brentford FC, about his role and football analysis more broadly.
Tweet us! www.twitter.com/AnalyticsFC
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Find Joel and Bobby on twitter:
Joel www.twitter.com/MessiSeconds
Bobby www.twitter.com/BobbyGardiner
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Intro music is MMHHMM by LiamLRY. Logo created by Erik Wagner from the Noun Project.
Episode 31: Rory Campbell (West Ham United)
This week we met Rory Campbell, Head of Technical Analysis at West Ham.
Tweet us! www.twitter.com/AnalyticsFC
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Find Joel and Bobby on twitter:
Joel www.twitter.com/MessiSeconds
Bobby www.twitter.com/BobbyGardiner
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Intro music is MMHHMM by LiamLRY. Logo created by Erik Wagner from the Noun Project.
Episode 30: Rene Maric (Red Bull Salzburg)
This week we're joined by Red Bull Salzburg and Spielverlagerung's Rene Maric!
Tweet us! www.twitter.com/AnalyticsFC
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Links from the podcast:
Rene's twitter www.twitter.com/ReneMaric
Spielverlagerung (English) http://spielverlagerung.com/
Spielverlagerung (German) http://spielverlagerung.de/
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Find Joel and Bobby on twitter:
Joel www.twitter.com/MessiSeconds
Bobby
Episode 29: New Season - Introductions
Beginning of the new season. In Season 2 Episode 1 of the Analytics FC Podcast we introduce Joel Salamon and Jeremy Steele to the team.
Follow us! http://www.twitter.com/AnalyticsFC
Joel's intro video: https://youtu.be/hyssqYD-gxA
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Links from the podcast:
Packing article http://statsbomb.com/2016/08/unpacking-packing/
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The guys can be found on Twitter:
Bobby http
Episode 28: Michael Caley and Mike Goodman
In Episode 28 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by Michael Caley and Mike Goodman to discuss their new podcast (The Double Pivot), the recent Champions League Final and to roundup our favourite team’s 15/16 seasons.
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Links from the podcast:
http://www.howlermagazine.com/060616-dp-klinsmann-isnt-wrong/ (Latest episode of The Double Pivot)
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The guys can b
Episode 27: David Sumpter
In Episode 27 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by David Sumpter, author of Soccermatics: Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game, to discuss his new book.
We also are running a competition to win 3 copies of the book. Listen to the podcast or check our Twitter for details! Competition runs until 12/05/16 and is for UK listeners only.
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Links from the podcast:
http://
Episode 26: Uncut
In Episode 26 of the Analytics FC Podcast we take your questions from Twitter. Remember this isn't edited, you were warned!
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Links from the podcast:
https://twitter.com/search?q=tobin%20heath&src=typd (Tobin Heath cooking up the ?)
http://statsbomb.com/2016/04/the-search-for-confidence-and-the-hot-foot-theory/ (Bobby Gardiner on the 'Hot Foot')
https://twitter.com/wosostats (WoSo
Episode 25: Paul Riley
In Episode 25 of the Analytics FC podcast we are joined by blogger Paul Riley. We talk to Paul about his recent work about picking a data-driven England squad for the upcoming Euro 2016 tournament, his work around goalkeeper analytics and take your questions from Twitter.
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Links from the podcast:
http://differentgame.wordpress.com/
https://differentgame.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/engl
Episode 24: Jen Lute Costella
In Episode 24 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by Jen Lute Costella, co-founder of hockey analytics consultancy LCG Analytics. We talk about the overlaps between ice hockey (hockey) and football, the current state of hockey analytics and Jen’s work with LCG Analytics.
We also find out about Jen’s previous work with a public analytics project and the upcoming Hockey 101 series too, which
Episode 23: Thom Lawrence
In Episode 23 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by Thom Lawrence, blogger over at http://deepxg.com/. We talk about Thom’s wayward entry into the analytics community, his EGMAYO and PATCH metrics (seriously) and discuss the results of Thom’s recent “State of Analytics” survey.
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Links from the podcast:
http://deepxg.com/
http://deepxg.com/2015/12/02/egmayo-an-injury-impact-
Episode 22: Sam Jackson
In Episode 22 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by goalkeeper analytics blogger, Sam Jackson. We talk about the important qualities Sam looks for in a goalkeeper, why he writes about the “non-shots” stats and then discusses some of his recent work, including his GPI metric and his upcoming Opta Pro Forum presentation. We also find out Sam’s favourite goalkeepers and close out the podcast w
Episode 21: Sean Ingle
In Episode 21 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by Sean Ingle, senior sports writer and columnist at the Guardian. We discuss journalism, data journalism and Sean gives some excellent advice for aspiring writers.
We then dive into three main topics: Football, Tennis and Athletics - discussing Leicester’s surprise season, the recent Buzzfeed/BBC investigation into match-fixing in tennis a
Episode 20: Simon Gleave
Guess who’s back!
In Episode 20 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by Simon Gleave, Head of Analysis at Infostrada Sports. We discuss Simon’s fascinating background, his role at Infostrada Sports and some of the public work he’s done in football analytics recently, and take your questions from Twitter.
Links from the podcast:
http://scoreboardjournalism.wordpress.com/
http://www.infostr
Episode 19: Tom Payne
In Episode 19 of the Analytics FC podcast we are joined by Huddersfield Town performance analyst and Spielverlagerung and New York Red Bulls writer Tom Payne. We talk tactics; breaking down a few key concepts to understand them better, the combination of both analytics and tactics and find out the sides that Tom enjoys watching.
If you're interested in sponsoring the podcast, send us an email usi
Episode 18: Debate Edition
In Episode 18 of the Analytics FC podcast we debate a number of topics back and forth, including "Teams should sell players that outperform expected goals", "The demise of Grantland will impact the promotion of analytics" and "An English team will get the CL semis" - an interesting and fun pod, we hope you'll agree!
Links to things we mentioned on the podcast:
- Chad Murphy on selling your over
Episode 17: Damien Comolli
In Episode 17 of the Analytics FC podcast we briefly discuss the new Analytics FC consultancy and then welcome former Liverpool and Tottenham Director of Football Damien Comolli onto the show to talk about his previous roles, evaluating transfers, quantifying defenders and goalkeepers and how injury prevention may be the next frontier in Football Analytics.
If you're interested in sponsoring the
Episode 16: Fanalyst Roundtable
In Episode 16 of the Analytics FC Podcast the boys are joined by fellow analysts Ben Torvaney and Bobby Gardiner to shamelessly plug their recent work, the battle between being an analyst and being a fan, what we shouldn't use analytics for, Jamie Vardy, the use of analytics in the play-offs and we take your questions from Twitter.
The NYA Soccer post we talk about at the end can be found here:
Episode 15: Michael Caley
In Episode 15 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by Michael Caley to talk about his new Expected Goals model, what it contains, what teams it likes and doesn't likes, why it doesn't work outside the Top 4 European leagues and we take your questions from Twitter.
You can read more on Michael's latest model here: http://cartilagefreecaptain.sbnation.com/2015/10/19/9295905/premier-league-proj
Episode 14: Allison McCann
In Episode 14 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by Allison McCann, visual journalist at FiveThirtyEight, to talk about the new CARMELO rating system, the recent Women's World Cup model and what Tom and Sam think about the current state of Football Analytics.
You can check out the CARMELO system here:
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/carmelo/
You can also find all of Allison's work at
Episode 13: Michael Cox
In Episode 13 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by Michael Cox (writer at Zonal Marking, The Guardian and ESPN FC among others) to talk about the origins of Zonal Marking (the blog), the combination of tactics and analytics and the future of analytical football writing. Michael also gives some tips on how to break into football journalism. You can read Michael's blog at http://www.zonalmar
Episode 12: Gab Marcotti
In Episode 12 of the Analytics FC Podcast we are joined by journalist Gab Marcotti to talk about the recent anti-stats pieces, analytics in the mainstream media, how analytics and #FootballMen can work together, the future of football (and sports) analytics and we take questions from Twitter!
Another plug for Intopress, if you're an aspiring young writer and want to get started in the football jo
Episode 08: A Mixed Bag
Episode 08: A Mixed Bag by Analytics FC
Episode 04: Womens World Cup Preview with Emily Dulhanty and Danny Page
Episode 04: Womens World Cup Preview with Emily Dulhanty and Danny Page by Analytics FC
Episode 02: Ben Torvaney
Episode 02: Ben Torvaney by Analytics FC
Episode 11: Second Podcast Syndrome with Bobby Gardiner and Ben Torvaney
In Episode 11 of the Analytics FC podcast, we're joined by Bobby Gardiner and Ben Torvaney, two fellow analytics bloggers (and students!)
We discuss PDO and its downfalls, analytics in mainstream journalism, Brendan Rodgers sacking, Chelsea's poor start and take some questions from Twitter also.
Make sure you check out Intopress if you're an aspiring young writer and reach out to Bobby if you w
Episode 10: Ryan Bahia
Episode 10! Thanks to everyone who's listened to and shared the podcast so far, we're thrilled to have made it this far!
In this episode we talk with Ryan Bahia from Perform Group about Opta and the upcoming OptaPro Forum, tips for applying, previous forums and what clubs are looking for in an abstract. Note that the deadline for these is 18/10/2015, so get sending in soon!
In the second half of
Episode 09: Joel Salamon
We're back! In Episode 09 of the Analytics FC podcast we are joined by Messi Minutes/Seconds himself Joel Salamon to talk smart clubs, smart transfers, not so smart transfers and Anthony Martial.
Please take the time to give us a rating on iTunes here: itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/analy…id991610009?mt=2. It really helps us grow the audience for this podcast and get new people involved. Once again
Episode 07: Dustin Ward
In Episode 07 of the Analytics FC Podcast Sam and Tom are joined by Dustin Ward aka Saturdays on Couch.
Before Dustin joins us we talk about the Women’s World Cup. Sam cries into his Canada scarf while we discuss the game, looking forward to the quarter finals and reminisce about a penalty shoot-out way back in 2007.
When Dustin joins we discuss his background, recent work on Statsbomb and his i
Episode 06: Mike L. Goodman
In Episode 06 of the Analytics FC Podcast Sam and Tom are joined by Grantland staff writer Mike L. Goodman.
We discuss Mike’s role at Grantland and the analytical approach he takes in his writing, talking in depth about TSR (Total Shots Ratio) and Expected Goals.
Mike also talks to us about his thoughts on what Analytics writers do well and can improve on, including the use of data visualizatio
Episode 05: Dan Altman
In Episode 05 of the Analytics FC podcast Tom and Sam are joined by Dan Altman - economist, writer and founder of North Yard Analytics.
We talk about the challenges in the market for analytics, using different data and how likley clubs are to take onboard the ideas of 'fanalysts' (anybody got a better word than fanalyst?)
We also discuss the use of economical thinking and theories in football,
Episode 03: Omar Chaudhuri
In Episode 03 of the Analytics FC Podcast Sam and Tom are joined by Omar Chaudhuri, Head of Football Intelligence at 21st Club.
We discuss Omar's background in the sports industry, what his job involved at 21st Club and what 21st Club does in the industry. We also cover Omar's interest in cricket, debating lessons the English Premer League can learn from the IPL. Finally we talk about Omar's late
Episode 01: Introductions and Richard Whittall
In the inaugural Analytics FC Podcast we introduce ourselves and interview freelance journalist Richard Whittall about the change he's seen in analytics in football, where he thinks the community is going and find out the motives and ideas behind some of his recent work.
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Richard Whittall is @ RWhittall on Twitter and www.richardwhittall.com
Tom Worville is @ Worville
Sam Grego
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