THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION:

The Americanization of Statistics By Premier League Clubs (Kyle Austin, March 7, 2011, EPL Talk)

With crucial, late campaign matches taking place across the Premier League over the weekend, several executives from top EPL clubs took time to cross the Atlantic to discuss analytics. The global game of football, unlike baseball and basketball in America, has yet to reach its analytical tipping point. However, it is ripe for change. With a growing American influence on the business of football across England, the revolution is coming. Steven Houston of Chelsea and Gavin Fleig of Manchester City, who participated on the panel, were hard pressed to argue with that during the day’s discussion. You’d also find them hard pressed to argue that working with American analysts within the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) has been a good thing for their respective clubs and the overall future of the Premier League.

“We like working with American sports franchises,” noted Houston. “One benefit, we’re not competing with them. Secondly, they do so much analysis.” It shouldn’t be surprising to hear Houston say that. The head of technical scouting and data analysis for Chelsea has a deep understanding of statistics in American sports. He cut his teeth within the NBA for the Houston Rockets as an analyst – applying data analytics to international basketball prospects. At which time, he worked for Daryl Morey, current General Manager of the Houston Rockets, Co-Chair of the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and the focus of a New York Times feature by the author of Moneyball on his use of analytics in basketball.

Following that impressive apprenticeship, Houston moved to Chelsea in 2009. He now works closely with senior management, including Michael Emenalo and Carlo Ancelotti, on data modeling and visualization, statistical and video analysis, and developing technologies. However, it hasn’t been a necessarily easy transition. Although he joined the English Premier League several years after the introduction of statistical analysis at clubs like Bolton, he didn’t have the data he worked with in the NBA. With the Houston Rockets he had pre-established values associated with literally hundred of points, passes and rebounds. Chelsea, like many other English Premier League clubs, didn’t have league available data and had far less scoring to attribute events to than the NBA or MLB. To solve the problem, he along with other analysts at Tottenham and Fulham – that were also in attendance at Sloan – have worked within their respective clubs to set values for connecting a pass, intercepting a pass, completing a tackle, winning a header and much more.

It is shocking for an American observer how primitive the European understanding of their own game is.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 7, 2011 7:02 AM