SHA Small Heath Alliance

Fat Buddha CBE

They’re all shit.

Agreed, but lot's of feckers have made lot of money telling us this.

They’re all shit.

I've done a statistical analysis on this ......... and only 78.9% of statistical analyses (i had to look the plural of analysis up, i admit) are shit

Good read again Dan.
I have to say that very few in this squad have my trust.
It feels like they only turn up if it suits them. They don't seem to care about the club or fans.
Something fundamental needs to change which I suspect the owner's and current management will be trying to do in the summer.
For now we are stuck with this lot and have to hope they turn up enough for us to stay up.

Dan. How much do you trust the whoscored raw data?

Haircut1000

Dan. How much do you trust the whoscored raw data?

I linked how they put it together in the text - link is here for you: [www.whoscored.com]

It's designed to be algorithmic and objective, and I think they do a decent job. It's clear that the less time on the pitch a player has the more their score is likely to be skewed, and I'd like to do some sort of comparison using their data and fbref's minutes / starts stuff to see if there is a clear bias - but for what I wanted to achieve, it did the job.

Thanks - that's interesting. It mentions all players start with a rating of 6.0.

I just wonder how one can judge other qualitative metrics, such as "motivation of team mates", "communication skills" and "ability to follow a coach's instructions". I'm not saying your analysis is wrong, but part of me thinks performance can never really be properly quantified.

Dan your statistical evidence supports what we have all seen, too many poor performances from inadequate players. Roll on the summer

and here’s hoping the squad are motivated enough until the end of the season

public discussion of canning half the squad both made from the terraces and from the dugout could end up very counter productive

here’s hoping they get it right on the pitch and start earning some points

Years of relying on the loan system and buying bang average players is hopefully a thing of the past

We have a mix of decent pros coming to the end of their contracts or even championship careers and some who would have been released already had we been in a better position financially

Couple of the loans have not cut it - unusual as we have a good record with the quality of loans over the last 5 or 6 years

We all know the big clear out is coming, exciting times ahead, just got to get through this season and hopefully stay up

KRO

Reedy1968

Years of relying on the loan system and buying bang average players is hopefully a thing of the past

We have a mix of decent pros coming to the end of their contracts or even championship careers and some who would have been released already had we been in a better position financially

Couple of the loans have not cut it - unusual as we have a good record with the quality of loans over the last 5 or 6 years

We all know the big clear out is coming, exciting times ahead, just got to get through this season and hopefully stay up

KRO

I think it is fairly consistent on the loans side. Last year we had Płacheta but otherwise good, 2021-22 we had Castillo and Richards, 20-21 we had Harper. So probably 1 or 2 per season don't work out.

There was an interesting stat on one of my football podcasts the other day that said on average only 60% of transfers are a success. Their definition of success used a calculation of their playing time over the length of time spent at the club.

I wonder how much that 60% reduces when you're shopping in the bargain basement like we have been.

KES

The biggest takeaway from all this is who actioned signing Burke in the Summer and thought he would add anything to our squad?

You know about 50% of all signings don't work out?
To an extent it is simply a numbers thing.
If you have 25 players only 11 can start each week and only 5 can come on and 4 more make the bench.
So any club ends up employing several players as cover who are there more or less to bulk the squad out and hopefully do a bit .

Sometimes those players come through and turn in to vital team players, more often they don't.
There is still a lot of guesswork in buying players even with the best statistical models.

It doesn't mean Burke hasn't been poor, but it's just one of those things where the club has taken a small gamble and it hasn't paid off. It happens every season to every club.

Sheep2

KES

The biggest takeaway from all this is who actioned signing Burke in the Summer and thought he would add anything to our squad?

You know about 50% of all signings don't work out?
To an extent it is simply a numbers thing.
If you have 25 players only 11 can start each week and only 5 can come on and 4 more make the bench.
So any club ends up employing several players as cover who are there more or less to bulk the squad out and hopefully do a bit .

Sometimes those players come through and turn in to vital team players, more often they don't.
There is still a lot of guesswork in buying players even with the best statistical models.

It doesn't mean Burke hasn't been poor, but it's just one of those things where the club has taken a small gamble and it hasn't paid off. It happens every season to every club.

You didn’t really need guess anything to know it wouldn’t come off. It was a bad signing. The end.

It was a panic signing after we couldn’t get Kaba over the line.

Super Hans

It was a panic signing after we couldn’t get Kaba over the line.

I don't think it was a panic signing exactly. We seemed to have him lined up for quite a while, so more of a long planned fall back.