RealGM

Wondering what the current state-of-the-art is in soccer for statistical/analytical though. Any links you could point me to would be appreciated.

I found this interesting: http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/16/real-m ... ics_2.html

Summary:

-Statistical analysis of players most likely to touch the ball in a sequence leading to a goal.

-Data from 2008 Euro

-Xavi and Sergio Ramos stand out.

One of the most annoying things in regards to soccer stats is that a company called prozone is clearly the leader in soccer stats and yet their information is not freely accessible.

A British newspaper called theGuardian (guardian.co.uk) has extremely good passing stats but unfortunately they have not extended this to all the games in the World Cup and *only* do EPL games. Likewise The Telegraph also have a good section in regards to passing individual passing stats.

Where Prozone excels is that they provide stats with how often players ran at certain speeds and therefore you are aware of an individuals work-rate as well as their passing ability.

If you find anything I would love for you to pass it on because for years I've dug around trying to find more informed stats regarding soccer very unsuccessfully. Even basic stats like "assists" has been counted in the last 5-10 years and not in all leagues.

The Actim Index has some stats in regards to dribbles completed etc. but again they release stats rather than opening up their database for you to look at. From what I've seen they just keep "successful/not successful/percentage successful" type stats rather then in depth ones about who players are passing to.

I think Soccernet has assist stats for all leagues if I'm not mistaken but I doubt how accurate they are because Xavi has been averaging super human numbers according to them.

I've found Soccernet stats to be unreliable and only use them as a last resort. If it's purely goals/assists stats I'm after (in the EPL) the fantasy premierleague site is possibly the best and most accurate. Pretty sure you can look up the stats without logging in too.