When you think about it, the standard categories into which we group football players aren’t very satisfactory. Midfielder, defender, striker. Those say little about a player, beyond where he stands as the game kicks off. So we add some more detail. Full back, wing back, defensive midfielder, “number 10”, “false 9”. And things quickly get […]

The inaugural post on Hilltop Analytics introduced my one-page player snapshots. Now let’s put them to use in anger. There was a flurry of articles last month around the theme of, “Is Michael Carrick England’s Pirlo?” Searching Google for [carrick “england’s pirlo”] turns up 1130 hits, including a recent piece from the Telegraph. The Telegraph’s sub-headline makes […]

Recently, I’ve been wondering what a one-page football player snapshot might look like. I like one page reports. They’re a good discipline to produce – because you have to discard everything you don’t really need – and they’re a fantastic way to keep a meeting on track. More than a page has people leafing through a […]