Episode #2: Michael Calvin (The Nowhere Men)

Jonathan Gruhl is a data scientist at a major technology company with extensive experience in applying quantitative knowledge to fields such as management, finance, and sports. He presented research at the OptaPro Analytics Forum on developing similarity scores in football using match event data. We discussed his work, go over some of the surprising and not so surprising results, and muse on what makes player similarity studies so challenging in soccer.

Oliver Page is a sports trader with experience at a number of firms in the United Kingdom and interests in applying academic research and mathematical concepts to sports statistics and betting. He presented research at the OptaPro Analytics Forum on shotmaking strategies and expected goals in football. We discussed his work and the challenges of presenting probabilistic information to the rest of the football industry.

Simon Farrant and Devin Pleuler are with OptaPro, the professional services arm of Opta Sports. In this episode (recorded at Opta's headquarters in London), we discuss the recently concluded OptaPro Analytics Forum and a few of the highlights from that conference.

Zach Slaton is the proprietor of the soccer analytics blog A Beautiful Numbers Game and a columnist at Forbes.com. In this episode, we discuss our respective lists of the major stories in football analytics during 2013, such as Opta's acquisition by PERFORM Media, the release of The Numbers Game and The Nowhere Men, the fallout from the Soccer Analytics panel at SSAC, the acceptance of randomness in football, and more.

This episode of the Soccermetrics Podcast was a live Google Hangout On Air to discuss the 2014 World Cup Final Draw that was conducted earlier in the day (6 December). Axel Torres (MARCA and GOL TV), Bobby McMahon (Forbes and formerly FOX Soccer), and Albert Larcada (ESPN Stats and Info) joined Howard Hamilton to give overall impressions of the draw and provide initial assessments of the final eight groups.

Dr Geir Jordet is a professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, the head of the Psychology division of the Norwegian Center of Football Excellence, and a sports psychology consultant to professional football clubs and national teams. In this episode, we discuss the role of the Centre in Norway's football development, the factors that influence expert performance in football, and the factors that influence performance in high-pressure scenarios, such as penalty kick shootouts.

David Sally is a trained behavioral economist, visiting professor at the Tuck School of Management at Dartmouth College, and the co-author (with Chris Anderson) of The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Soccer is Wrong. In this episode, we discuss David's interests in behavioral economics and how they influence his approach to soccer analytics, his path to becoming a soccer fan, and some of the counterintuitive findings presented in The Numbers Game.

(Originally recorded for Integral magazine project.) Murray Innes is the proprietor of a site called Football Mythbusters, in which he takes a whack at several "myths" that people in football just know to be true. We talked about the motivation for starting Mythbusters, some of the myths he examined, and get his thoughts on the upcoming season in the Premier League as a Liverpool supporter and La Liga as a new resident of Barcelona.

(Originally recorded for Integral magazine project.) Damien Comolli is a controversial figure in football depending on which set of supporters you talk to. He has worked as a scout and then a sporting director at a number of clubs in France and England, and for better or worse he has been the leading exponent of the Moneyball philosophy in football. We talked before the 2013-14 season about expectations throughout Europe and his thoughts on the current state of analytics in the game.

Michael Calvin is the author of The Nowhere Men, a book on the life of football scouts in England. In this episode, we discuss the previously unknown world of football scouts, the challenges posed to it by the analytics movement, and what both groups could learn from each other.