The glass half-full from the title refers to AZ taking only a point, where they failed to take more distance during dominating spells in the first half. And it refers to Ajax, who managed to fix some issues from the recent Cup defeat against AZ, but left much to be improved in order to refresh… [Read more…]
January 18, 2012
With the second half of the Eredivisie just a few days away, this may be the right time to refresh our memory of the current state of affairs in the Eredivisie. This post will try to do that by plotting the teams’ offensive and defensive performances. Drawing on earlier posts on this same subject, teams… [Read more…]
December 30, 2011
With exactly half of the 2011/12 season behind us, this may be the optimal moment to reflect on the tactical developments that the current season has provided us with. Let’s see what tactical observations and some decent stats, provided by Infostrada Sports, show us on the season in progress and what expectations we may hold… [Read more…]
December 28, 2011
The very first parameter to measure individual football players performances is still the most wide spread. Every single league has an award for it: a simple count of the number of goals scored. But it is a flawed metric. It favors players playing on superior teams, it doesn’t take into account whether the goals were… [Read more…]
December 24, 2011
“The most important thing […] is to keep a clean sheet.” Words along that line will sound familiar to anyone who has ever watched football managers comment on their pre-match intentions. A simple Google search for the terms “Eredivisie and “de nul houden” [Dutch equivalent of “keeping a clean sheet”] comes up with quotes from… [Read more…]
December 10, 2011
Don’t judge a book by its cover, and along that same line, don’t judge a game by its score line. Yes, Twente further reduced the gap with league leaders AZ with this seemingly comfortable win, with a nice home clean sheet in the process too. But, no, Twente played below par for most of the… [Read more…]
December 4, 2011
Heerenveen managed to extend their excellent opening of the 2011/12 season by defeating league leaders AZ 5-1 at home, breaking a club record in the process by going 12 Eredivisie matches unbeaten. Freshness, a high work rate, and outstanding individual performances proved key in defeating AZ, who clearly lost the battle early on in midfield,… [Read more…]
November 26, 2011
In the final part of this mini series we will focus on the missing link between creating shots on target and scoring goals: conversion. The first post in this series aimed to assess performances in terms of the raw number of chances created or conceded, while the second post introduced team’s performances in terms of… [Read more…]
November 23, 2011
Ajax managed to obtain exactly the result they came for in their fifth Champions League Group stage match, duplicating their home result with a 0-0 away draw at Lyon. Considering Real Madrid’s absolute dominance and Dinamo Zagreb’s failure to grab any points so far, the balance in results between Ajax and Lyon see Ajax now… [Read more…]
November 21, 2011
Yesterday’s blog update was the first of a planned three part mini series looking at team performances in the Eredivisie so far this season. With a focus on the amount of shots created and conceded, we’ve got a rough image of the performance of the teams, allowing a closer look in this second part of… [Read more…]
January 22, 2012
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