Just read this on a football stats website (statsbomb) that I frequent:

"Agents Pitch for Petros to Crystal Palace

Petros is absolutely an ideal deep-lying midfielder for your team. He completes passes at a rate way ahead of his Betis teammates. On a team that is overall well-below average (-160 completions below expected), he is +30 completions. These are generally safe passes played out wide, but he’s great at doing it and that’s exactly what you guys need. You often struggle with getting the ball to your wingers to start attacks, MacArthur and Ledley are both below-average passers and are playing big minutes for you in Petros’s position, grab him for an upgrade that you really need in a season where every point is crucial. If you are worried it will weaken your defense, don’t be. Petros has 7.5 won tackles or interceptions per game while Ledley + MacArthur combine for 6.8 between them. He does the defensive work of both while outpassing them by leaps and bounds."

I think using statistics in shaping teams, analysing them and using them to recruit future players is very interesting. I suppose there are several questions here:

1) Thoughts on the original quote?
2) Is using analytics for recruitment good or bad, and why?
3) Anyone here have any experience with football analytics?

Just read this on a football stats website (statsbomb) that I frequent:

"Agents Pitch for Petros to Crystal Palace

Petros is absolutely an ideal deep-lying midfielder for your team. He completes passes at a rate way ahead of his Betis teammates. On a team that is overall well-below average (-160 completions below expected), he is +30 completions. These are generally safe passes played out wide, but he’s great at doing it and that’s exactly what you guys need. You often struggle with getting the ball to your wingers to start attacks, MacArthur and Ledley are both below-average passers and are playing big minutes for you in Petros’s position, grab him for an upgrade that you really need in a season where every point is crucial. If you are worried it will weaken your defense, don’t be. Petros has 7.5 won tackles or interceptions per game while Ledley + MacArthur combine for 6.8 between them. He does the defensive work of both while outpassing them by leaps and bounds."

I think using statistics in shaping teams, analysing them and using them to recruit future players is very interesting. I suppose there are several questions here:

1) Thoughts on the original quote?
2) Is using analytics for recruitment good or bad, and why?
3) Anyone here have any experience with football analytics?

They are useful but on their own can be incredibly misleading.

You could stick me in the middle of a Barcelona team and my stats would look good. Considerations include what league does the player play in, team set up etc.

Stats don't tell you the character of the person, for instance look at Payet.

They should be used to support Managers & Coaches decisions not dictate them. I saw an analogy when talking about moneyball along the lines of Football is not a mathematical equation

That is where our Romanian friend in TT gets carried away

I'd prefer to look at shooting opportunities created rather than simply assists.

Define shooting opportunities. It's unquantifiable. Everybody has a different definition of what that is. whoscored adds them in a way, other sites add them differently, every individual watching adds them differently.

While assists and goals (excluding penalties) are the end product and objective.

what I meant was a pass that leads to a shot