Ted Knutson
@mixedknuts
Followers
49,493
Following
1,180
Media
617
Statuses
4,449
Founder, StatsBomb, Variance Incorporated. @thetransferflow Daily Rumours newsletter Frmr: Brentford FC, Pinnacle
Bath
Joined April 2010
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Judô
• 177606 Tweets
#MetaCensorship
• 150298 Tweets
Guatemala
• 132825 Tweets
#هنيه_شهيد_القضيه
• 111981 Tweets
Social Security
• 97915 Tweets
Marta
• 83555 Tweets
Adriana Ruano
• 58046 Tweets
Leon Marchand
• 50675 Tweets
RIGI
• 45742 Tweets
billie
• 42129 Tweets
Alcaraz
• 39354 Tweets
Bungie
• 38946 Tweets
対象2作品
• 38611 Tweets
Sony
• 30173 Tweets
Collins
• 28154 Tweets
Espanha
• 26123 Tweets
Powell
• 25692 Tweets
村尾選手
• 25414 Tweets
Diogo
• 24177 Tweets
Shane
• 24051 Tweets
銀メダル
• 21259 Tweets
#NABJ24
• 20642 Tweets
Rafael Macedo
• 20252 Tweets
Kitu
• 18930 Tweets
ビデオ判定
• 18555 Tweets
Alexia
• 17013 Tweets
Jackson Holliday
• 10539 Tweets
Summerville
• 10172 Tweets
It's been weird to watch Arteta - who is a bright, but still fairly young head coach - learn new lessons on the job every season.
This year obviously very much about squad management, but also... it's still REALLY hard to compete at the top of the PL + CL on Arsenal's budget.
56
141
1K
I no longer analyse transfers in public for any team - except Arsenal - so some thoughts on Havertz.
As a kid, he was probably the best 10/8 in Germany. He knows how to press (played for Roger Schmidt and Tuchel). Arsenal definitely love a flexible, talented player these days.
10
65
849
We at
@StatsBomb
like to release free data. And not just like a game or two, but large data sets that people can really sink their teeth into. (Like Lionel Messi's entire Barca career.)
We also get endless requests from students for analysis data. Too many, in fact, to process.
9
37
589
Happy 8th birthday to
@StatsBomb
.
It has grown from a place to collect analytics writing into one of the world's leading sports data companies.
They said over and over again data in football wouldn't work. We now power over half the EPL + great teams all around the world.
26
45
572
I feel like coaches look at Mainoo and they see his potential future, but almost nothing he does RIGHT NOW is good enough to start for England.
Meanwhile, ENG needed a left back, and Levi Colwill was definitely good enough to make the backup/mascot slot.
60
39
540
It's hard to judge him on Chelsea performances other than he never looked out of place in the PL. Every attacker in that team was infected by dysfunction.
Age is right.
I think this is another very good piece of recruitment from Arsenal, who rarely go wrong these days.
6
18
396
He's Harry Kane. That's the running joke. We all know this...
But that is a STUPIDLY GOOD first season at Bayern.
Shot monster.
99th percentile xG.
Never loses the ball.
And near elite creative passing from up top.
That's one hell of a punchline.
24
37
376
The Ajer deal for Brentford is one that hearkens back to how long clubs can follow guys.
We did a ton of work on him when he was at Start (as a midfielder), but were worried about his strength at that time in the Champ.
Celtic put him in the weight room + moved him to CB.
14
20
320
Manchester United's Marcus Rashford is apparently "available" this summer, and potential buyers have HUGE questions they need to answer about which Rashford they might be getting.
Let's dig in...
16
30
311
Congrats to
@StatsBomb
customers
#ITA
and my set piece mentor Gianni Vio for winning Euros.
Incredible tournament all around, and a brilliant, hard-fought final tonight against fantastic competition.
We are delighted to announce a short term deal with the Italian national team, who will benefit from our cutting edge data & analysis tools
Lieti di aver firmato un accordo di breve periodo con la Nazionale Italiana, che beneficerà dei nostri dati e analitiche leader nel settore
7
40
436
1
36
293
To be fair to the recruitment dept, they are STILL cleaning up messes from different regimes that will mostly be gone soon.
But Arteta's choices around blooding squad players and more academy kids probably needs to move toward Wenger's style sooner rather than later.
11
36
284
Shaw overlap opens a HUGE space for Eze to cut inside.
Fuck's sake, imagine how dangerous this team would be if they used both sides for 90 minutes.
2
24
277
This literally happened because a bunch of nerds KEPT TALKING ABOUT it on the internet, and then showed their work over and over again until everyone just agreed that, "Yeah actually shots from closer are better and shots with feet are better and hey, the whole game needs to
Teams didn't stop shooting from further out because some nerd at a computer told them it was bad. They did it because the coaching staff improved their team's ability to generate higher value chances.
7
13
327
18
22
271
Doesn't have the aura about him because Atalanta doesn't generate headlines, but Gasperini is one of the very best.
Has turned down BIG offers from giants elsewhere to stay there, too. A well-deserved trophy.
Xabi Alonso doesn’t just have a brilliant future, he has a brilliant present.
But tonight he was out-coached and his team out thought and out fought.
He’ll learn and come back stronger.
34
261
1K
3
44
266
He is both bigger than people expect him to be and sneaky fast.
Not a huge fan of him as a pure 9, but that's also not why you buy him. You buy him because he is very good as an attacking mid and can play across most of the front while scoring.
Arteta could go false 9 a lot now
1
11
247
*checks in on Sunderland, post-head coach change.
Oh. Oh dear. Ohhhhhh boy.
That is the OPPOSITE of all the good stuff we have been seeing in the Premier League recently. Strictly not advised.
15
53
244
Did this a bunch of times starting back in 2014, but kept to the NDAs, so no one at The Athletic wrote about it. 🤣
Kevin De Bruyne used a deep dive into his own data to highlight his worth to Manchester City during talks over a new deal in 2021.
His approach was unusual but it has changed the contract renewal process forever.
It has opened up a new frontier in player power.
@greggevans40
11
46
302
3
11
243
"Please give us a sequence with as many weird model outliers as possible for our research.
Holy shit, thank you."
7
26
230
I wasn't entirely sure that was possible in a Premier League match without any red cards.
4
33
231
I'll take, "Which team do industry insiders say does not use data and analytics in any way?" for 1000, Alex.
8
19
227
On a related note, I think Darwin Nunez is unequivocally one of the more interesting players in world football right now. No one QUITE knows exactly what to make of him, and I think that's joyful.
(Reposted to fix a small error.)
10
32
223
So
@StatsBomb
the blog turns 10 this summer.
I wrote a piece reflecting on the early days of football analytics, and classic stories around content, superfans, etc.
If nothing else, my opening paragraph still has the character I started with in 2013.
9
38
222
History lesson: Passing networks were some of the first visualizations to be implemented at a variety of top clubs. We even had a CL-finalist team ask for tweaks on ours (vertical vs horizontal, 1st half vs 2nd) because the coaches wanted those for flexible analysis.
Some more context - using the Manchester Derby as an example. In the first half City overloaded the left-hand side.
Armed with this information, you speed up your workflows (especially when looking at multiple matches) and see how/why they created these dynamics. Tailored info!
6
7
106
2
17
195
This analysis is so good. Another classic example of how can we use data to learn more about football? In this particular case, how the game is changing rapidly in the current era.
2
29
189
Today marks
@StatsBomb
's 9th birthday as a website! It started with
@benjaminpugsley
and I posting analytics articles about soccer and has turned into one of the world's biggest sports data companies.
A brief timeline of when things happened:
11
18
181
FYI: We're about to post a job opening we haven't listed in ages: Football Analyst.
The consulting side of our business has taken off over the last year, and we have some incredible projects in front of us. But to keep up, we need more talented, knowledgeable people.
5
31
173
Version 1.0 of our American Football product is done, and there is so much in this introductory piece to talk about.
We put together such a monster data spec that even the NFL doesn't have access to certain elements.
Oh, and did someone say FREE data?
11
29
173
There's an interesting cycle that has developed in sports analytics over the years. It seems to go something like this:
1. Produce written work. (Analysis/data blogs, threads)
2. Appear on podcast or give talks at conference(s)
3. Team/media job. Or data provider.
3
22
169
At the start of 2021, I wrote a piece about my health journey. Some of my very good friends said they were inspired by it, so I figured I'd give an update on how I lost 50 lbs and have kept it off.
Here's the original post:
11
5
168
It's been been while, but... We have FREE StatsBomb Data releases coming in each of the next three weeks.
Keep your eyes peeled for the
@StatsBomb
announcements.
1
11
168
Was researching Euros stuff today and England have trucked out an all-time defence in the group stages.
And they are on the good side of the draw.
Yeah, they've only scored 2 goals, but goals -like strikeouts- are fascist. Defence wins championships.
Spain, Germany, Portugal, France and Belgium all on the same side of the draw, you say?
17
144
3K
9
5
159
This is the third
@StatsBomb
free data release to the world this year.
FREE 360 data for Euro 2020. For everyone.
Enjoy. Tell your friends.
StatsBomb Announce The Release Of Free StatsBomb 360 Data: Euro 2020 Available Now
7
117
784
2
14
153
I never stop being a little sad about Anthony Bourdain.
And I will never stop being a little sad about Michael K. Williams.
These are people who changed lives through their work, and it's okay to wish they had more time.
But their work was monumental. Cherish it.
2
6
142
I was digging through old articles yesterday and got so excited when I unearthed one of the classic early
@StatsBomb
graffiti radars.
This is when baby Harry Kane burst onto the scene in 2013-14 and the nerd corps got very excited.
2
8
137
While we're here spewing out wild ideas, my strongest football beliefs are:
Throw-ins remain hugely misunderstood and valuable.
The UEFA Conference League should be a single elim tournament featuring every team from every big and medium-size league with random draws.
10
5
134
@StatsBomb
So that's what we did. You get all of the data for entire seasons across five different leagues, including the one insane English Premier League season that Leicester City won.
Which previously never had freeze frame data released to the world.
Go forth. Have fun. Please enjoy.
4
9
132
“Liverpool like Leny Yoro.”
Sure, why not? He’s an 18-year old centre back picking up large playing time at Lille in Ligue 1.
If you are a teenager getting major playing time in a decent league, you end up on the scouting list for basically any competent team in the world
5
15
133
Liverpool "out of nowhere" to potentially sign Orkun Korcu, 23yo at Benfica.
That's weird.... they almost never sign pure attacking mids these days.
*does research*
AHA, played AM for Slot at Feyenoord.
10
15
128
The whole "Use data to negotiate a new deal" concept has been around a while, but it's still nowhere near ubiquitous. It started with smart players and agents and is expanding to a few more.
The utility + return on investment is three-fold.
1) It usually helps players' find
3
11
127
The
@StatsBomb
piece on Upgrading Expected Goals is live. I want to give a huge shoutout to
@d_vatvani
and our Data Science team for producing something really cool from a space people thought was mined out.
Even CTO Thom Lawrence was excited.
2
17
120
StatsBomb is my life's work, but I didn't realise that until a friend of mine reminded me I was designing soccer data way back in May 2006.
I didn't start to learn data vis until late 2013.
I touched my first set piece in August 2014.
Started running a company in 2016-17.
1
2
122
Recurring theme around: Recruitment is hard.
Sometimes when a highly-touted player doesn't work out, it is almost ENTIRELY the fault of their new team/coach.
Exciting to see Sancho doing well on the big stage again.
Against PSG on Wednesday, Jadon Sancho reminded the world of his brilliance.
12 successful dribbles and a display of the "cage football" that made him one of the most coveted players in the world a few years ago.
@EliasBurke
analyses a memorable performance.
24
18
134
11
9
120
Conor Gallagher once again on the rumour mill, mostly due to Chelsea's pending PSR problems.
I'm intrigued by this one, partly due to the complexity in evaluating how good he is at his "job."
Let's dive in...
4
18
124
Welcome to the computer vision nightmare.
all the Penn State players are tough to see in the snow but the guys with the white sleeves and white socks are basically invisible
37
329
5K
1
2
117
@StatsBomb
For the record, there's STILL MOAR data coming this summer beyond the 15-16 Big 5. We've got some sweet Legends stuff that will trickle out soon.
And you'll get the entire Women's World Cup data and 360 at the end of the summer.
10 years is a long time. Thanks for the support.
1
4
109
Just taught my 14yo why save percentage is a poor stat to evaluate GKs.
I knew all this football nonsense would pay off at some point...
4
3
110
Oh... we gon' analyse a LOT of transfers this summer. Starting next week.
Tell your friends.
"I guess I got my swagger back..."
@mixedknuts
I wish I had known about you last year Ted - that is an excellent take. Very prescient.
Will you analyse Arsenal’s transfers this year too? 🤞🏼
0
0
1
7
5
108
At
@StatsBomb
, we've been playing around with more data around the value of throw-ins.
This is a vis
@ArabAnalytics
whipped up looking at dangerous throw-in teams in the attacking final 3rd, for the 23-24 English Premier League.
Feels pretty promising.
(I've been doing
10
13
107
In 2018,
@StatsBomb
introduced the position of the GK and Defenders to xG for every shot.
2020 delivered Shot Impact Height.
To this day, neither of these things has actually been matched by our competitors.
The 2022 improvements to xG are below.
#DataChampions
6
10
108
Some video info on the new
@StatsBomb
Assistant Director of Football role.
We will get this posted on the website for Monday, but because the role is both unusual in football now and unusual for StatsBomb, I figured I should explain.
3
7
105
*play the classics*
@fraac1
@mixedknuts
I really do miss the sheer excitement of dudes constantly banging the ball into the stands from 40 meters out, that was true joga bonito...
0
1
9
2
10
104
Bellingham is the T-1000.
JUDE BELLINGHAM JUST SCORED THIS GOLAZOOOO IN EL CLASSICO 🤯🤯🔥🔥
6
43
230
1
19
105
Nico Williams noise got LOUD this week, and while I am interested in him as a young wide forward, I'm not EXCITED.
Athletic sell _very well_, so I'm not sure [insert your favourite PL team here] can find a price that makes sense.
Here's Nico compared to Musiala in today's TTF.
Today's edition of TTF is in your inbox. If you haven't signed up yet, WHY NOT?
[Peep the link in the comments.]
We have Bernardo Silva Jabber, more Michael Olise news, and a comparison of Nico Williams and Jamal Musiala.
Oh, and this...
2
2
7
11
9
100
Also... all the reply people who told the nerds that the bad overpays over the last 3-5 years by giant clubs wouldn't matter. My god, have those people been proven spectacularly wrong. Some of the biggest budget teams in the world effectively caplocked themselves via bad salaries
1
16
96
It might not have been obvious to everyone, but
@StatsBomb
released 1850! matches of NEW FREE DATA this summer. Stuff we collected, just to give it away to the public.
Analysts now have an entire season of Big 5 data to analyse, plus new ICONs data. Women's WC still to come.
1
13
97
A little thread on Liverpool:
I did some of the early writing on age curves and squad construction in football/soccer.
The start to this season was always a bit of a risk, but I also think they made basically all the right decisions to get here.
2
17
97
I'm going to introduce my New Thing next week.
It will be completely free. It will include a Newsletter and Podcast(s). Eventually those will be ad-supported.
My request is that if you like the content, tell/forward to your friends. And forgive the plugs on here as we go.
2
5
96
Not gonna lie -
@Carra23
's slow and gradual transformation into a football stats nerd was not something I would have predicted back when he was winning trophies as the most annoying player on Liverpool.
Game's not played on a spreadsheet, m8. This is what happens when we let people who haven't played the game do analysis.
9
8
164
3
0
93
This Arsenal + Zinchenko signing feels directed squarely at me.
ADORED him as a teenager as a left wide forward - creative passing numbers were off the charts.
Then Pep turned him into a creative inside left back.
He was still electric against Sweden at Euros as a creator.🤤
4
3
92
It's not too late to do anything. You aren't behind, you just aren't there yet.
Your great work:
Can come from unexpected places.
Takes time.
Is influenced by collaboration.
Compounds over time, effort, and focus.
Is also probably ahead of you.
2
6
95
NEW from me: Started from the Top, Now We Here.
When football analytics started, it was thought that the smallest leagues couldn't afford it. Fast forward to 2022 and FOUR of the promoted/playoff teams in LEAGUE TWO are
@StatsBomb
customers.
1
11
93
StatsBomb xG and xG conceded trendlines for the entire Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola PL eras.
City clearly struggling so far this season (for them!), while it's at least a little interesting that Liverpool's attacking output just keeps going up over time (2021 was drunk).
8
8
87
As the StatsBomb account mentioned,
@SethPartnow
and I will be in San Antonio starting Sunday to attend the American Football Coaches Association conference.
That's because after a year of hard work, we have American Football data.
@WeAreAFCA
#WeAreAFCA
#2022AFCAConvention
3
8
87
Number 154 on the FT's fastest growing companies list. Huge credit to the entire team at
@StatsBomb
, especially given the velocity of new product releases over the last 12 months.
6
9
89
Kane's positioning in the Final Third is constantly wrong (trying not to be more critical). Would be worth a HT sub, especially on a yellow now.
4
11
87
This is getting a lot of QTs lately...
Which is a lot more fun for me than the earlier Partey QT era.
(And a reminder I should probably delete my history again.)
I no longer analyse transfers in public for any team - except Arsenal - so some thoughts on Havertz.
As a kid, he was probably the best 10/8 in Germany. He knows how to press (played for Roger Schmidt and Tuchel). Arsenal definitely love a flexible, talented player these days.
10
65
849
3
4
86
There is simply too much haunting, Grace. Too much...
(if I supported Arsenal, the xG difference table from this season would haunt me for the rest of my life lol)
25
14
230
1
10
85
England somehow quietly have 2 World Top 5 midfielders, 3 top 10 attackers, a decent defense and uh... Jordan Pickford.
And fans are pretty pessimistic overall.
This country is an endless cycle of amused and perplexed.
14
6
86
The problem is that most stats usage in commentary is trivia, not analysis. There's no insight in the vast majority of it - it's just quoted facts about the past.
You COULD use stats and data to offer insight, but that takes research +tactical and/or data knowledge. Not easy.
Mini 🧵: It’s interesting to me that a lot of football broadcasting now, particularly featuring younger contributors, relies so much on statistics. People parroting statistics over and over again. I can remember thinking that if I had to resort to reciting a statistic…
43
5
98
3
8
85
"Best" is always subjective, but Rodri was probably the most important player in the Premier League this season.
And... he might be the best DM in world football right now.
*whispers* He MIGHT _even_ be a good finisher from midfield.
h
4
15
82
@StatsBomb
So for the 10th anni celebration, we decided to add something BIG that addressed a lot of the complaints we get from students.
We're probably never releasing current season data. That's what allows us to exist as a company.
But we could release the entire Big 5 for 1 season.
1
3
80
Episode 1 of
@TheTransferFlow
podcast is out with football analytics pioneer Ravi Ramineni
@analyseFooty
.
We discuss Ravi's journey, the mess in Manchester, potential changes in how PL clubs will run teams in a salary cap era and more.
8
19
83
This is big news. These two were legit great at their jobs AND helped put England's talent up a notch or two in the process.
Jim Fraser has left Chelsea, with Neil Bath set to follow, amid radical changes to the academy's management structure. The duo established a best-in-class operation with global renown and relentless success for more than two decades.
216
255
1K
1
11
81
Inverted wingbacks is some Pep overthinking in a CL Knockout level shit.
1
3
82
It is literally only simple IF your are RM. Considerably harder to execute for seemingly every other team in world football.
(It also helps to have one of the best academies as well.)
2021: Eduardo Camavinga
2022: Aurélien Tchouaméni
2023: Jude Bellingham and Arda Güler
2024: Kylian Mbappé and Endrick
Real Madrid cherry-picking the sought-after elite young talent, summer after summer. Simple.
6
33
400
3
2
78
While I am here... data vis is _hard_.
Data vis + sport knowledge + intuitive design is really, REALLY hard.
But it's also one of the most useful ways in the world to bring data analytics insight into sport. AND business.
Keep making mistakes and getting better.
2
8
78
Guys...
I can't believe this is true, but...
I think we've made it.
3
8
78
Why do teams with decent transfer budgets need to buy enough data to scout the world?
Because the outliers can be anywhere.
What is the chance this [guy/woman] can translate most of THAT performance to our league?
What is the price?
LFG!
4
6
78
Starboy owns the right so far. The other England attackers seem to be confused about this.
2
4
78
Any time I get a little too anxious about starting a new thing, I like to look back at the original
@StatsBomb
logo from 2013 (thanks, Donnie!).
It was NOT... a good logo. But the website content was good, and the ideas and discussions it spawned changed the sport.
StatsBomb
0
4
76
I wonder if England could be as dangerous attacking on the left as Saka is on the right.
I guess we'll never know.
4
9
76
NEW: An update from me about all the stuff going on at
@StatsBomb
right now.
Includes information around the SB Conference in October, and especially juice tidbits about the data we are releasing for the research paper contest.
1
19
75
Gorgeous set for the
@StatsBomb
Conference tomorrow. Really looking forward to seeing everyone.
2
5
75
As talent markets become more efficient, the value tends to move around and then stabilise.
A decade ago, ALL of the value was with youth. Now it's more distributed. BUT... you still have the Mbappe/Haaland/Vini Jr/Neymar Factor.
The only time you get an Mbappe you can afford
The market is so fucked. The point of buying young talent used to be that they were a bit risky but didn’t cost what a proven star costs in fees and wages. Now the young, unproven players cost what a proven star costs but without any assurance of quality. Makes zero sense
33
38
473
3
3
74
Bellingham passing at the centre circle to start that move and then closing out the aerial floater in the box over a fullback is such a gargantuan mismatch.
Like a kaiju vs your basic ass robot.
He moves like almost no one else in football from midfield.
4
7
75
As someone who has worked alongside statistical models for 2 decades, I view the current waves of AI as very similar...
Models/AI can help you do A LOT of things, but humans are hugely important to fill in the gaps. And when everyone has models, the gaps are where the money is.
3
8
73
I got so excited about new features in
@StatsBomb_FB
IQ that I made a video for the first time.
It's showing the integration of our tracking data PLUS video PLUS player highlighting with American Football data.
After last night, why not show Mahomes to Kelce?
3
10
70
Because the rumour mill is always on, I don't think fans have fully realised how few transfers have happened during the pandemic. There's just been zero liquidity to trigger almost any moves.
January has been delightfully weird, but this summer... WHOO BOY.
2
13
69
I'm going to start doing more content again this summer.
What would you like me to dig into in the transfer space?
Can be specific players, team rebuilds, whatever... just building up ideas before executing right now.
44
4
71
8 years since I came out of Brentford and started hammering this point.
Hundreds of coaches taught since that time at all levels on the
@StatsBomb
Set Pieces course.
Football is SLOOOW to change.
2
3
69
My Sloan talk is on YouTube. It's basically the
@StatsBomb
American Football launch.
I detail some of the lessons that we took from soccer in designing the new AMF data, and I explain how having better data is a huge competitive advantage.
0
11
69
Sometimes I miss doing more educational content, especially about data vis...
Someone brought up the dynamic Y axis on the
@StatsBomb
xG trendlines that I posted for Klopp and Pep earlier.
This is something that I flagged as irritating Many Years ago as a user, and I run the
7
2
69
@MC_of_A
Oh, this is just the performative packaged media side. But, you know, sometimes you have to submit actual written terms. So that everyone understands EXACTLY what the contract will look like. And esp bc multiple languages are spoken.
You know, like in normal business.
3
1
65
What if... and I am just spitballing here...
I started to leak new
@StatsBomb
American Football data and IQ stuff BEFORE tomorrow?
5
7
69
Apropos of absolutely nothing football related...
Game of Thrones’ ‘The Mountain and the Viper’ episode released 10 years ago today.
384
1K
16K
2
11
68