Net Gains

Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution

By: Ryan O'Hanlon

Narrated by: George Newbern

This in-depth examination of soccer takes listeners on a tour across the world and throughout history, introducing the many people who have attempted to shine a light onto and innovate a sport that, in many ways, is still stuck in the Dark Ages. This deep dive into the rise of analytics in soccer—a sport where tradition reigns supreme—shows how revolutionary tactics and underexplored metrics are breaking the beautiful game wide open.

By exploring how massive institutions built on billions of dollars can function for so long without any kind of introspection—and what happens when people from the outside attempt to question the status quo—author Ryan O'Hanlon, a staff writer at ESPN, shows how time and again experts, managers, coaches, players, and fans feel they know the best approach for any given team or player and yet get undermined by the complexity of the game—and human behavior.

To tell this globe-trekking story, O'Hanlon takes listeners inside the front offices and analytics departments of the top professional leagues’ most cutting-edge clubs and profiles a misfit cast of number-crunchers, behavioral economists, tech insiders, and managers all working to move beyond the philosophical side of soccer and uncover the hard truths behind possession, goals, and developing talent.

©2022 Ryan O'Hanlon (P)2022 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Liked the book. Pronunciation an abomination.

The book itself was great, but when the narrator can't pronounce Mourinho, Thierry Henry, UEFA, or even Arsenal for crying out loud, it makes it a distracting listen.

Must read!

Fascinating book and very well written. Great humor as well. Lots of the names and clubs are said wrong lol

the mispronounced names were distracting

Good book, but the number of mispronounced names were very distracting. I recommend with caution.

Definitely for data nerds and number crunchers

The pronunciation of some words gave it an “off” feeling. More-in-HO; BarKA; AR-sen-AhL

insightful about football statistics

I do wish the narriratwe knew how to pronounce the names of players and clubs but overall great listen. it is very numbers heavy so if that confuses you, don't bother. but great for coaches to listen too, or even just fans