Bad Stats - where we are all getting it wrong when talking about football

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to get a few things off their chests about the use of statistics in the general conversation around football. Do assists really tell us anything about creativity? Why do we harp on about manager win percentages? Does it really matter that Team A haven't won at Team B's ground for 27 years? And don't get us started on pass completion percentage. All these and loads more sloppy statistics are picked apart, but it's not just one big moan-fest as the guys also provide some suggestions as to how we can be smarter with the data in the future. Subscribe to The Athletic for access to Michael Cox and Tom Worville's unrivalled analysis of football from all manner of tactical and data-driven perspectives - head to theathletic.com/zonalmarking to sign up for just £1-a-month Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Om Podcasten

Hosted by Michael Bailey, revered football tactics writer Michael Cox is joined by more of The Athletic's brightest tactics and data analytics writers to break down the tactical and technical details behind the biggest footballing stories each week - assessing the latest trends, systems, players, managers and all manner of statistics in order to give you a deeper understanding of the game.