**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND PERFECT GIFT FOR FATHER'S DAY** A FINANCIAL TIMES SUNDAY
TIMES AND TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 'The best book on football I have ever read'
Daniel Finkelstein 'Fascinating and educational. An enjoyable and informative read' Sir Kenny
Dalglish 'Deserves a place among the great modern books on football' Sam Wallace chief
football writer Telegraph ______________________________ The insider account of the data
revolution that has swept through the modern football world written by one of its key
architects Ian Graham. Between 2012 and 2023 Ian Graham worked as Liverpool FC's Director
of Research. His tenure coincided with the club's greatest period of success since the 1980s
including winning the Premier League in 2020 - Liverpool's first league title after an
agonising three decades. Here for the first time Graham reveals the fascinating data that
informed some of the club's most pivotal moments of the past decade from the appointment of
Jurgen Klopp as manager in 2015 to the signing of Mohamed Salah in 2017. Along the way he
shares groundbreaking insight into the modern game including how a season largely played
behind closed doors transformed our understanding of home team advantage or why the GOAT
(greatest of all time) might not be who you think. And in a game that is increasingly
dominated by an elite few Graham charts a path for the future where a data-savvy competitor
will always find the edge. ______________________________ 'A fascinating witty and
remarkably insightful account of Liverpool's reinvention and a clear-eyed detailed explanation
of the inner workings of modern football. Nobody is better qualified to tell either of those
stories than Ian Graham who stands as one of the most (quietly) significant figures in the
recent history of the club and the sport' Rory Smith author of Expected Goals and Chief Soccer
Correspondent New York Times 'Never before has the data revolution in football been
described so well from the inside.' Christoph Biermann author of Football Hackers ' How to
Win the Premier League gives you three books for the price of one: a book about all of the
silly inefficiencies plaguing European football a book about what it's like to be empowered to
use outside-the-box thinking to help turn your boyhood club into the best team in the world
and a book about how football actually works. If he really wanted to Ian could easily put me
out of a job.' Ryan O'Hanlon author of Net Gains and staff writer ESPN *A Sunday Times
bestseller August 2024
