Article reminds me of earlier this year when the stats folks pointed out that if a match only lasted 80 minutes we would be top of the league, highlighting that we gave up late goals.
I thought it was a good bit of information. But when I was watching a match with David Pleat commenting, his partner brought up the statistic and Pleat tore it to shreds. His point being, who gives a fuck, you can manipulate things anyway you want but it doesn't change the fact the game last 90+ minutes. Albeit, Pleat did not use the f word, but I think he's right.
The game is the game. The players are the players. To cite things like if Bale was not playing then we'd be this or that points wise is basically irrelevant because it assumes that nothing would change in the absence of Bale. But everything would change in the absence of Bale, and what that reality would be is an unknown because it can't be tested. Bale was there and that's what happened. If Bale was not there, then something else would have happened.
Fuck somebody pass me one
I thought it was a good bit of information. But when I was watching a match with David Pleat commenting, his partner brought up the statistic and Pleat tore it to shreds. His point being, who gives a fuck, you can manipulate things anyway you want but it doesn't change the fact the game last 90+ minutes. Albeit, Pleat did not use the f word, but I think he's right.
The game is the game. The players are the players. To cite things like if Bale was not playing then we'd be this or that points wise is basically irrelevant because it assumes that nothing would change in the absence of Bale. But everything would change in the absence of Bale, and what that reality would be is an unknown because it can't be tested. Bale was there and that's what happened. If Bale was not there, then something else would have happened.
Fuck somebody pass me one