Moving the Goalposts by Rob Jovanovic is international football’s answer to Moneyball. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when I heard that the book centered around statistics, but it is an absolutely great read for a whole lot of reasons. Jovanovic takes on many footballing myths, using stats to render them useless or reveal bits of truth.
Yes, it is best to go first in a penalty shootout, especially if you convert the first kick.
Yes, stats show that Sheffield Wednesday of 1929/30 was indeed the greatest team of all-time. The 1999/2000 Man U squad was a relatively distant second followed by a 1894/1895 Sunderland side in third place.
Yes, the numbers point to Sir Alex Ferguson as the greatest English club manager of all-time, but these numbers also show that Wayne Rooney only improves the English national team by about 2% when he plays. Not really a gamebreaker in the international game after all.
Even corner kicks are brought into question. Statistics show that corner kicks result in a goal only 1.5% of the time in the EPL. That’s right, nothing happens 98.5% of the time a corner is taken.
I was worried that a dependence on numbers and stats could cheapen the beautiful game, but this book does exaclty the opposite. The book was enjoyable, fast-moving, and very approachable. It helps us develop a better understanding of the game we all love.
