Soccer Analytics

Match analysis in soccer has become more and more important in recent years. Nowadays, no professional soccer club plays a single match without having analyzed their own and their opponents' matches to find the best possible match plan and maximize their success. In this book, Ian M. Franks and Mike Hughes explore soccer analyses and use the results to develop realistic, progressive practices to improve the performance of the individual players and the team. Research from human decision making and motor skill acquisition is directly applied to the coaching process and technical and tactical practices are designed to accommodate these findings. Not only is the players' behavior during practice and matches analyzed but the coaches' as well. This helps evaluate different coaching practices to find your ideal coaching style. Any coach reading this book will find help in developing and improving their coaching. Anyone who wishes to delve more into the science of soccer analysis will find ample material as well as a comprehensive bibliography to better understand the science of soccer!

Ian Franks gained his full English Football Association Coaching Award in 1975. He was intricately involved in developing the Canadian Soccer Association's Coaching Program in the early 1980s. He then took a position as Director of the Centre for Sport Analysis at UBC where he developed the first computer analysis system for soccer. Mike Hughes has conducted research into Match Analysis for over 30 years. He has published over 160 research articles and written and contributed to 24 books. His areas of expertise include modeling, sport system perturbations, tactical and technical game analyses as well as individual movement analysis.