During the 2018 World Cup, Zito Madu pointed out the racially coded language commentators used to describe a match between Poland and Senegal, which didn’t line up with what he saw on the field. A typical article claimed that “‘Poland struggled all game against the pace and physicality of Senegal,’ which is an absurd line […]
When Liverpool signed Sadio Mané in the summer of 2016, the Merseyside club knew it was getting a dynamic attacking player. Still in his early 20s, Mané wasn’t the full package yet, but he displayed the kind of pressing intensity, intelligent (and relentless) running and nose for goal that then-new Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp looked […]
In 2011, a software developer named Sarah Rudd got fed up with conventional soccer stats. It was easy to count how many passes a player attempted and completed, but not all passes are equal. “We know passing percentage is a terrible metric for evaluating how good of a passer you are,” she told me. What […]
It’s still extremely early in the 2021-22 Premier League season, but Tottenham Hotspur finds itself at the top of the table after Matchweek 3, having won each of its first three matches, including a somewhat unexpected opening-day victory against defending champions Manchester City. City had the lion’s share of the ball in the match and […]
When Liverpool won the Premier League title in 2019-20, it fielded only three center-back combinations in its starting eleven over the entire season. Virgil van Dijk, widely regarded as one of the best central defenders to have ever played in the Premier League, played each and every minute of Liverpool’s 38 matches, partnered with either […]