Stat-a-lanche! No One Outstats Opta Joe

The man behind the facts explains why we’re all crazy for his figures.

Since 1996, Opta Sports has been collecting data about 30 sports in 70 countries to help clients such as Chelsea know more amazing stuff than their rivals. Opta Joe (@optajoe), is a football-only Twitter feed that delights fans daily with information so incisive it makes traditional punditry look as sophisticated as stags rutting. Here, the mysterious Joe shares his love of a good stat.

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Football has become Football Manager

“We have various scouting tools, a bit like Football Manager, where you can search for any player. You can say, ‘I need a midfielder, under-25, who averages five goal-scoring opportunities per game’ and it’ll bring up a list of all the players. It helps clubs because rather than a scout going to Hungary for a couple of weeks on a hunch, they can demonstrate the player is worth going to see.” CORRELATION DOESN’T ALWAYS EQUAL CAUSATION “It’s not as simple as ‘X has the most, therefore he’s the best’. Chances created are probably a better indicator than assists because they need a good striker to finish the chance. Chris Brunt and Matt Jarvis were in the top six chance-creators last season, but they don’t get applauded for it, whereas Fabregas does.”

Aquilani is better than you think

“Aquilani got more assists last season than Luka Modric has in two years at Tottenham (5), yet everyone thinks Aquilani is a flop. Six assists isn’t brilliant, but it’s alright for one season.” BARCELONA ARE AS GOOD AS YOU THINK “On average there are 2,000 pieces of data per game but that rises to 2,500 with Barcelona. Their average possession in the league this year was 73%, and lots of teams don’t even reach 60%. Stoke have never recorded higher than 50% in a Premier League game.”

European leagues vary hugely

“Germany always has a high goals-per-game ratio, and France is always ridiculously low. The other one is cards in Spain, which is unbelievable. Their refs hand out so many. In the Premier League last season there were 1,222 yellows and 65 reds, in La Liga there were 1,972 yellows and 111 reds.”

People are hungry for stats

“In the mid-90s the media thought stats were American and not what people care about,” says Opta Joe. “No one talked about assists, but now it’s seen as almost as important as goals. Stats were a way to fill up space, but now they’re seen as an integral part of any argument.”

None of this means football is predictable

“Otherwise I’d be living on a desert island as a millionaire.”

Opta Joe’s top ten stats

• Kenny Cunningham is the outfield player to have played the most Premier League games without scoring a single goal (335). Drought.
• Since Opta started analysing all Champions League games in 2003, Arsenal are the only team ever to record zero shots in a match. Blanks.
• David Platt scored three goals from three shots on target for England at the 1990 World Cup. Swivel.
• In the CL semi-final 2010, Xavi made 37 more passes on his own than the whole Internazionale team (116). Busy.
• Rob Green made more errors leading to goals than any other player in the Premier League last season. Calamity.
• Jamie Carragher has scored as many goals for Tottenham (3) as he has for Liverpool in the Premier League. Confused.
• In 80 games, Stoke have never managed more than 50% possession in a Premier League match. Cosh.
• Man Utd are the first ever team to keep six away clean sheets in a single Champions League season. Exceptional.
• If all shots that hit the woodwork had found the net instead, Arsenal would already be champions. (May 2011). Costly.
• Michael Owen has never reached 20 league goals in a single season. Barrier.
• In the PL, Liverpool have netted 2.2 goals per game without Fernando Torres this season, compared to just 1.2 when he played. Forgotten.

From the September 2011 issue of FHM India.