There is a significant debate going on in multiple sports about the role of advanced statistical analysis in professional sport. Statistics are becoming far more accessible to fans and clubs alike, but views about their usefulness vary from person to person.
For some, the numbers tell a hidden story that the score of the game simply doesn’t reflect. They become interested in simple stats such as possession or amount of ground covered by players to more advanced and esoteric stats such as predicted goals or stats which tell both the quantity and quality of shots taken and given up by teams.
For others, statistics can offer no more insight to what they can see simply by watching the games, and they ultimately exist to muddy the waters of a simple game.
Players are also becoming increasingly aware of such statistical analysis, and use it to varying degrees. Hector Bellerin recently sat down and spoke to the Arsenal podcast about how he views as well as uses available statistics to evaluate and improve his overall play.
Bellerin seems to take a balanced look at the statistical revolution in professional sport. He is both sceptical of stats, but also mindful of the information they can give him that he would not otherwise have access to.
Nowadays there’s a lot of numbers going around in football. People love to look at stats and see which player is better but sometimes stats are a bit unrealistic.
For example when we beat Bayern at home, we had less possession than them but we ended up winning, so sometimes numbers are not as real as people think.
Despite being slightly sceptical about stats, the young Spaniard admitted he is interested in his own, because he wants to be the best he possibly can be.
But when it does come to your performance, you always want to have a look to see if you’ve run a lot or less than another game.
You want to know why you did that because you always want to better yourself, especially in the Premier League. Football overall is getting much more physical now than it was before so it’s important that those numbers help you see where you are compared to where the best are.
If you want to be with the best, you want to know what you can do to better yourself.
